Here’s How Fast The ‘Boost Mode’ For PlayStation 4 Pro Is

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Sony has rolled out the beta version of the PS4 firmware 4.50. It is unclear when the Japanese company would release the public version of the 4.50 update. But Sony has confirmed that the update would bring a new Boost Mode that would boost the performance of older PS4 titles on the PlayStation 4 Pro. Many developers have patched their games to take full advantage of the PS4 Pro’s capabilities.

Boost Mode is a delight for PlayStation 4 Pro users

There is still a large number of titles that remain unpatched. Also, many PS4 games coming out now aren’t optimized for the PlayStation 4 Pro. The upcoming Boost Mode will enhance the performance of even unpatched games that were released before the PS4 Pro. Folks at Digital Foundry tested the beta version of Sony’s 4.50 firmware update to see how Boost Mode improves the performance of various games on PS4 Pro. They compared the original versions of the gameplay on PS4 to the PS4 Pro with Boost Mode active.

The results were impressive, but different for each title. Some games such as Knack saw a performance boost of only 14%. But other titles like Project Cars and Assetto Corsa saw up to 38% jump in performance. Digital Foundry measured performance in terms of frames-per-second. Though Boost Mode was able to enhance the performance of most titles, the improvement was nowhere close to the experience offered by games that have been patched to support the PlayStation 4 Pro.

Boost Mode does offer a noticeable improvement by squeezing out about 15fps of most titles. The level of improvement also depends on how GPU versus CPU intensive the game is. Digital Foundry said more GPU-intensive titles see a better improvement. The release of a feature like Boost Mode indicates that Sony does not expect too many developers to patch their games for the PlayStation 4 Pro.

Other features coming with firmware 4.50

Boost Mode is not the only feature coming with the firmware 4.50. It also brings support for external hard drives of up to 8TB. Users can directly install games on the external drive. Sony has also refreshed the quick menu, simplified the notification list, and added custom wallpapers. You have to manually turn on the Boost Mode from the Settings menu.

A Sony spokesperson told The Verge that Boost Mode would make PS4 Pro run “at a higher GPU and CPU clock speed” to improve the game play on titles that were released before the PS4 Pro. In some cases, the Boost Mode may cause unexpected behavior. In that case, you have to turn off the feature to resolve the glitches.

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