PS5 Boost Mods: What Are They, And How Do They Work?

As video game consoles have gotten more powerful, a clear goal has been improving the frame rates of console games to the point that they can run faster and more smoothly, the way games on high-end PCs do. Higher frame rates not only make the motion of the graphics look better but also allow for less input lag and more responsive controls. At lower frame rates, it takes longer for a given frame of animation to appear on screen, so you're going to know what you need to do and mash the appropriate buttons sooner, the higher the frame rate of the game is.

One feature of the Sony PlayStation 5 that appeals to longtime gamers is its backward compatibility with PlayStation 4 games. It also comes with the ability to run the enhanced versions of the games that were previously only viewable on the PlayStation 4 Pro console. Sony also touts a "Game Boost" feature to make the games look even better, but not every title gets the same level of benefit from it. Some gamers thought that Sony hadn't fully unlocked the potential of the older titles, though, and one modder, who goes by the name Illusion, got to work on using exploits to unlock the frame rates of more titles.

Recently, Eurogamer reported on the mod, which does not work on fully-updated PlayStation 5 consoles, only versions with older system software that can be exploited. Eurogamer's content partners at DigitalFoundry did a video with Illusion going over what games she's been able to unlock the capabilities of and why, so let's look at the particulars.

Among the PlayStation 4 games that Illusion has gotten to run at 60 frames per second on a modded PlayStation 5 are "Red Dead Redemption 2," "DriveClub," "Batman: Arkham Knight," "Just Cause 3," "Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy," and "Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled." The Eurogamer article notes that one reason that these titles haven't seen official updates to unlock this potential is that the games needed to be converted to newer Sony development kits for the PS4 games to take full advantage of the PS5's horsepower, but developers moved on to newer development hardware incompatible with the older games.

What Illusion has done is comparable to one of the options that Microsoft provided for its "FPS Boost" mode on the Xbox Series X for Xbox One games, turning off system-level caps of 30 frames per second on games that would benefit with minimal friction. The PS5 has a trio of compatibility profiles for PS4 games, and they don't always jibe with what a particular game is capable of: A CPU boost, what's effectively a PS4 Pro clone with additional CPU and GPU clocks, and a "last resort" that runs the game as if it was on a standard PS4. Eurogamer cites "Assassin's Creed Unity" as an example of a game that, thanks to the limitations of these profiles, couldn't run at a steady 60 fps on the PS5 while it could on the rival Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles.

In the meantime, though, unless someone can convince Sony to implement these changes themselves, you will only be able to unlock them on a modded PS5 that can't go online.