Folks at Digital Foundry have put Sony’s Power Saver feature to the test by showcasing its strengths and the costs linked to its enablement. This eco mode is part of the company’s drive to reduce greenhouse emissions, requiring developers to custom-tune each game to run at a lower power profile. Depending on the game, the console can run up to 50% more efficiently.
To achieve this, the CPU, GPU, and memory clocks/bandwidth are reduced to fit within the stricter budget, forcing developers to choose different approaches to maintain their gameplay vision. To be specific, Sony drops the PS5’s CPU to 8 threads instead of 16, cuts the 3D audio processor power by 25%, clocks down the GDDR6 memory to half speed, lowering frequency by 10 to 20%, and limits the GPU to 36 compute units. While the latter doesn’t change much for the original PS5, which carries exactly 36 compute units, the PS5 Pro, with its 60 compute units, will see a noticeable performance drop.
For now, only three games are supported: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Days Gone: Remastered, and Demon’s Souls, but more will come later. Digital Foundry tested two of these and found the following.
In Demon’s Souls, the Power Saver mode was fairly straightforward; it mainly reduced the frame rate from 60fps down to 30fps. As a result, the console consumed just half the power it usually does in this title, dropping from around 200W to 90W. Other than this, the game continued to target a 1440p resolution without changing the graphics or physics. Note, however, that while the overall experience was stable, there were some rare frame dips during intense situations.
Unlike Demon’s Souls, the developers of Days Gone: Remastered tried to keep similar performance when enabling Power Saver, giving players a choice between a 30fps quality mode and a 50-ish fps performance mode. To make this possible, the game’s internal resolution (before upscaling) and graphics settings were reduced. As a result, the Power Saver performance mode netted 50 to 60fps with some dips near the 40s in demanding scenes. For comparison, the non-Power Saver performance mode was stable at 60fps most of the time. Regarding consumption, the Power Saver mode once again increased the console’s efficiency by dropping power requirements from around 230W to 110W.
Though the experience was nearly identical between the regular PS5 and the PS5 Pro, the Pro console did show a couple of fps advantage in Days Gone, all while being slightly more efficient thanks to its newer chip-manufacturing node.
You can turn on Power Saver for supported games by following these steps:
- Go to Settings > System.
- Select Power Saving > Power Saver for Games.
- Turn on Use Power Saver and select which games you want to play using Power Saver.
Note, however, that the VR mode will be unavailable while Power Saver is active. Other features such as PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) may also be disabled.
Now, you may wonder, what’s the point of all of this for the regular players, since most, if not all, will prefer to use their console at its maximum performance. Well, according to a leak from Moore’s Law is Dead, which was confirmed by Digital Foundry, the Power Saver mode may also be a way for Sony to test and prepare for the rumoured PS6 handheld. The latter is said to be retro-compatible with PS5 games, thus testing them ahead of time seems logical.
Despite the limited usefulness of this mode to regular players, we appreciate seeing companies offering the option for those who care. Especially when the feature is well-tuned and not a gimmick. A nice addition for sure.
