It's great news all around for STALKER 2 players old and new, as the open-world FPS from Ukraine's GSC Game World has concluded its console exclusivity period with a launch on PlayStation consoles this week. A few days after the Xbox and PC editions received a transformative patch to version 1.7, the game launched on PS5 and PS5 Pro, and we can confirm smooth performance on the former and noticeable visual updates on the latter.

We were optimistic that the mostly locked 60fps refresh we're freshly enjoying on Xbox Series X's "performance" mode would translate to base PS5, and this week, we have confirmed just that. As we generally prefer our shooter games at 60fps, even with a hit to base resolution, STALKER 2 arrives on base PS5 in a day-one fashion that we are pleased to recommend, with only a few tolerable drops to the low 50s in frame rate at the same rare spots as found on the current Xbox Series X version.

It appears PS5 needs a bit more headroom to reach its performance targets. Thanks to how STALKER 2 resolves its final image from a TSR upscale, we can't comprehensively measure resolutions across the board, but in the performance mode moments we could confirm like-for-like on-screen contents, base PS5 resolution landed at 1152p while Xbox Series X measured 1440p. And while both platforms achieve similar stellar frame rate levels, PS5 in performance mode drops 2-3fps lower in the same city-zone choke point as Xbox Series X.

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Pixels on the PS5 Pro version get closer to a maximum 2160p resolution than on the base version, apparently thanks to how the more powerful system handles its TSR upscaling pass.

PS5 Pro, meanwhile, opens STALKER 2 up to a bit more fidelity, though not necessarily as much as we'd hoped. The devs at GSC Game World suggest a number of visual aspects are upgraded on the Professional, including global illumination, reflections and volumetrics, but the one we can most clearly discern is higher-resolution treatment of shadows. And while pixel counting of static moments didn't suggest a higher base resolution on PS5 Pro in performance mode, it enjoys a substantially cleaner presentation of pixels in motion than any other console at 60fps.

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Just like on all other consoles, PS5 Pro has a tradeoff in base pixel resolution and other differences between its 60fps performance mode and its 30fps quality mode, as evidenced by this comparison.

This comes via a TSR upscale method as built into the game's Unreal Engine 5 implementation instead of the PS5 Pro's exclusive PSSR upscaler. TSR has inherent issues with blurring of moving foliage, so we don't necessarily love it in STALKER 2's tree- and plant-lined biomes. Still, we've documented many PSSR image quality issues over the past year, especially with recent UE5 games like Silent Hill f and Outer Worlds 2. STALKER 2's dev team at GSC Game World suggested to Digital Foundry at this year's Gamescom that they wouldn't switch to PSSR if it didn't offer a noticeable improvement over the UE5- and Lumen-friendlier TSR, and that has apparently borne out.

We've also confirmed PS5 Pro in performance mode still has the same city-zone choke point vulnerability, at which point frame rates dip just a bit beneath 60fps, but this vulnerability is lowest on PS5 Pro compared to all other consoles we've tested. Its 30fps quality mode, like on the other consoles, remains locked, as well.

For more on patch 1.7's dramatic impact on PC and Xbox Series X/S, check out our companion STALKER 2 coverage from today.