Today, on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, a PlayStation game released on Xbox, and an Xbox game released on PlayStation. A topsy-turvy concept if you're talking to anyone who plays video games in 2006, but in 2025, we're getting more and more used to it. Gears of War Reloaded arrived on all current-gen platforms today, including PS5 and PS5 Pro, and Digital Foundry's analysis of the game across all platforms confirms what players might've been able to guess leading up to its launch. As of today, the best way to play Gears of War (on console) is to play it on a PlayStation.
Specifically the PS5 Pro, which offers the best combination of performance and visuals on day-one. Digital Foundry's John Linneman reports that there's currently a VRR issue on Xbox Series devices, which holds its performance back compared to the new PlayStation versions.
Linneman also makes it clear that if all you're doing is looking to play Gears of War Reloaded in its standard 60FPS mode, then you're good with whatever console you choose. The PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S, all deliver a rock-solid experience based on Linneman's testing. It's only when you try to play on the 120FPS mode where differences start to appear, in terms of performance. If you're trying to go for both performance and visuals though, then the PS5 Pro stands at the top.
"PS5 Pro though, delivers the best results bar none," Linneman says. "The 60FPS mode now runs at 1620p upscaled to 4K, while 120hz maintains the 1440p of the other consoles 60FPS mode." Linneman adds that the "real kicker" to the experience on the PS5 Pro is that The Coalition is using PlayStation's PSSR tech over AMD's FSR, and even though PSSR isn't fool-proof in delivering a better experience, it does so in the case of Gears of War Reloaded.
"It's a case where this combination of a slightly higher pixel count in addition to PSSR produces a significantly better overall image on the PS5 Pro, making it easily the best of the bunch when talking about consoles."
It should be noted that Linneman continues to say that the PC version can, of course, be pushed for the best experience, and that all of the console versions still deliver a "sharp, attractive" experience.
If all you care about is performance though, and don't have a PC to push Gears of War Reloaded beyond what's capable on consoles, then based on Linneman and Digital Foundry's analysis, the VRR bug on Xbox Series consoles is all that makes the 120FPS mode on Xbox fall behind the PlayStation versions. Whatever your pick, PlayStation or Xbox, you'll have a solid experience in terms of performance.
It's a bit funny, if not surprising, that PlayStation is the best console home for Gears of War Reloaded, even if it is by a technicality, since the PS5 Pro is not exactly a device that everyone rushed out to buy since it launched. Nor is it always the best choice, since we've seen multiple games get minimal improvements, or launch with issues that make it run worse on the PS5 Pro compared to base PS5 and Xbox Series devices. At least things will be a little more even whenever The Coalition is able to fix the VRR issue on Xbox.
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