Prediction: next gen to offer performance mode as a system feature

[nemo37]

I am curious how this would be that much different from the dynamic resolution techniques employed on certain games today in order to maintain a target frame rate? Also, from my understanding, many engines already support dynamic resolution. I don't think it would be necessary or even appropriate to enforce dynamic resolutions on every game either by making the console do it automatically or by setting it as a standard that games must follow in order to be able to release on the platform. The reason is that certain devs might want to prioritize visuals over frame rate in certain games and might not like the idea of the console automatically prioritizing a higher frame rate. Although in reality, I think it is best that devs build games for both high resolution versus low frame rate and lower resolution versus higher frame rate scenarios and let the user choose (barring certain genres that require 60 FPS like fighting games and racing games).

As for pro consoles running games at a higher resolution, that is already something many PS4 Pro and One X's can do. The only reason many of these games need to be patched is because the games themselves were created before the devs had any idea that pro consoles would be coming.

Halo 5 is a great example of a game that employs dynamic resolution and where the resolution auto-adjusts on the One X without a patch. On the base XONE (S) the game rarely reaches full 1080P, however, on the One X (even without a patch) it will run at full 1080P. Of course this game was patched to support dynamic 4K, because at the time of its release MS probably did not know they would release the One X and so did not include 4K assets nor did they believe it to be necessary to let the resolution auto-adjust upwards beyond 1080P (again because they did not know about the One X at that point).

In the next generation (or even partially in the current generation, since the pro systems have now been released), I can imagine devs increasing the ceiling of their dynamic resolutions from 1080P to 4K . When run on a non-pro console these games will run at 1440P/1080P 60FPS and when run on premium system they will auto-adjust to 4K 60 FPS; and because the games are built with a higher resolution ceiling in mind, no patching will be required.