Ubisoft’s visually ambitious title, Assassin’s Creed Unity, continues to push even the latest generation of gaming hardware to its limits. Despite a recent update introducing 60 frames per second (FPS) support for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, achieving a consistent 4K 60 FPS experience remains out of reach, as revealed by a comprehensive analysis from Digital Foundry.
Assassin’s Creed Unity’s initial release was notorious for its stunning graphical fidelity alongside significant technical problems. Years later, even with the enhanced capabilities of current-gen systems, the game’s demands are evident.
Digital Foundry’s testing highlighted the specific resolutions at which the game runs on various consoles:
- Xbox Series X: 2880×1620
- Xbox Series S: 960p
- PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro: 2304×1296
While the update largely delivers a smoother gameplay experience, it’s far from a locked 60 FPS. A specialist from Digital Foundry shared their observations:
“Most of the gameplay runs at 60 FPS, but this is highly dependent on the specific situation. It would be more accurate to say that the game generally operates in the 50-60 FPS range, with dips to 40 in particularly demanding scenes — especially during cutscenes where Ubisoft employs a very ‘heavy’ depth-of-field effect, significantly reducing the frame rate. PlayStation 5 Pro shows the highest average framerate, but honestly, I would still prefer the Series X: system VRR on Xbox works even in backward compatible games, whereas on PS5 it does not. Therefore, thanks to higher image clarity and VRR support, the Series X version looks better and runs more stably.”
This analysis confirms that Assassin’s Creed Unity, even a decade after its release, remains a formidable benchmark for hardware, preventing modern consoles from achieving the coveted stable 4K 60 FPS benchmark.