Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s update significantly improves Xbox Series X performance, analysis shows

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s latest major update significantly improves the game’s performance on Xbox Series X, analysis has shown.

Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s 1.0.4 update last week, promising an “improved experience” on Xbox Series X including reduced screen tearing, among other features.

Prior to the update’s release, Digital Foundry analysis suggested the PS5 version of the game had a more consistent framerate and suffered less from screen tearing, which was relatively problematic on Xbox Series X.

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In a new post-update analysis, Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia said that from what he’s seen, “the patch didn’t actually change much of anything on PlayStation 5’s performance”.

While the game performs “basically the exact same” on PS5 following the update, it’s much improved on Microsoft’s console.

“Xbox Series X is where things get quite different because it was tearing and dropping frames a lot more than the PlayStation 5 was last patch,” Battaglia said.

“Now, most of these cutscenes… it’s running basically flawless with a handful of tears across the entire cutscene on Xbox Series X in this 1.04 patch.”

He added: “[In that] famous torch cutscene that I mentioned in the last video… where we saw the largest differences between Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5—you know, well above 20-25% at times during that—now it’s a flat 60fps on Xbox Series X as of this patch.”

The performance gap between the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game was perhaps somewhat surprising given that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was one of the most prominently marketed games for Microsoft’s console.

Ubisoft claimed recently that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla sold more copies in its first week than any other entry in the series.

“Valhalla’s sober detailed research is undermined a little by some slightly tipsy execution,” according to VGC’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review. “But this is a hearty, bawdy Viking feast of a game which spins a fine tale and offers plenty to get your teeth into.”

Further reading

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s new patch lets players choose between graphics and performance modes

Update also reduces screen tearing on Xbox Series X/S