Digital Foundry Tests the Performance of EVERY Version of Sonic Frontiers

Digital Foundry, the internet's prominent game graphics and performance testing site, recently went hands on with every major console version of Sonic Frontiers, including the Switch and each major hardware step of the Playstation 4/5 and Xbox X/S/One.

Reviewer John Linneman had some rather positive things to say about the overall Sonic Frontiers package, but there are some pretty notable variances in performance based on your hardware and settings.

Unsurprisingly, the stronger the hardware you can throw at the game, the better the results are, with decent PC graphics cards allowing both 4K and 60fps, and the Switch just scooting by with extremely close pop-in, reduced texture quality, and simpler environment models. PlayStation 5 and Series X came out as the best performing consoles, but each require the choice to prioritize either full 4K resolution or 60fps.

That said, there are a handful of more universal issues with the game's performance. Though it's most distracting on the Switch, every version (even the PC) has an extremely noticeable draw distance that doesn't attempt to soften pop-in with fade or similar effects. Further, hardware and modes that limit the game to 30fps have periodic frame pacing inconsistencies.

Like all Digital Foundry tech reviews, keep in mind the reviewer goes quite in depth, and while most aren't going to be that bothered by differences in light bounce and reflection quality (myself included), it's still a fascinating look at the different ways Sonic Team was able to get the game to run on a staggering variety of machines. If you're torn between platforms, hopefully this serves as a push in whichever direction matters to you most.