Ark Survival Ascended Mostly Runs At 720p on PS5 & Series X

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Bawal Zehri

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Ark Survival Evolved recently received a major remaster. Dubbed Ark Survival Ascended, this remaster updates the original game for new hardware, taking things up a notch with Unreal Engine 5.

However, recent testing has shown that the title proves to be incredibly challenging for the current-gen consoles. According to the results, it runs at unacceptably low resolutions.

Why it matters: It’s no secret that Unreal Engine 5 is incredibly demanding. Previously, games like the Brothers re-release highlighted how difficult this engine can be to handle.

According to Digital Foundry, Ark Survival Ascended does not come with the traditional quality and performance mode.

Instead, it offers one single mode that aims for 60FPS. This is similar to Capcom’s launch setup for Dragon’s Dogma 2. However, neither game is able to achieve this target on the PS5 or Xbox Series X.

The report states that Ark Survival Ascended runs at mostly 720p on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. This image is then reconstructed to 1440p, but the results are not the best due to the low internal resolution.

Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S runs even worse. With the resolution falling as low as 450p, this console shows its limitations very quickly. It is important to note that all three consoles use dynamic resolutions.

However, the typical experience stays within the lowest bound of this dynamic resolution. All consoles run Ark Survival Ascended between 30-50FPS at these settings, with the most stressful situations tanking the frame rate below 30FPS.

Still, there is one saving grace. PS5 and Xbox Series S|X users can access a PC-like console command. This enables Unreal Engine 5 tweaking, offering settings that can somewhat improve the frame rate.

Users can even implement a 30FPS lock using V-sync, though it introduces frame-time stutters.

Ark Survival Ascended utilizes Lumen, Nanite, and other Unreal Engine 5 features.

This is primarily why the game runs as poorly as it does. However, even non-Unreal Engine 5 titles, like Final Fantasy 16, have shown poor image quality results on the current-gen machines.

Ark Survival Ascended fans might want to look at PC for the ideal experience.

Studio Wildcard is also working on Ark 2, which could arrive at some point in 2025. Going by these results, however, the team needs to ensure more work is put into the optimization before this launch.

Bawal Zehri

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