Mass Effect: Andromeda is Best Experienced on PC, Says Digital Foundry

BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda released on Earth almost two weeks ago to mixed or average reviews. The game, despite having known issues concerning performance and font size, has managed to retain top spot for two weeks straight on the UK physical sales chart according to market research website GfK. For a game five years in development, Mass Effect: Andromeda had a lot riding on its shoulders, especially considering the critical acclaim its predecessors received. But from a technical perspective, how does it hold up across the board?

According to a side by side comparison and frame-rate test video from Digital Foundry, Mass Effect: Andromeda is best enjoyed on PC, mostly due to native 4K presentation that the likes of PS4 Pro can’t quite match. Playing the Game on PC using ultra or high settings guarantees better embellished geometry and terrain, clearer depiction of intricate character and landscape assets, and higher resolution shadows for a more striking visualisation of the alien worlds in ME: Andromeda’s environments. Digital Foundry does point out that even the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti isn’t enough to pull off the game at 4K, a feat which probably requires the processing power of the AMD Ryzen 7 1800x. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for the minimum requirements to play the game, BioWare has you covered too.

As for consoles, both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have a rather similar visual make-up, with minor resolution drops on Xbox One during cutscenes where the game’s presentation is “visibly rougher”. Ultimately, the PS4 Pro comes out on top by creating a perceived 4K resolution thanks to checkerboard rendering, which helps increase resolution without sacrificing performance.

If you haven’t played Mass Effect: Andromeda yet but are keen on diving into its sci-fi world, make sure you check our handy tips right here on Gameranx.