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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is faster on PC than on PS5, even without DirectStorage

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A lot of headlines surfaced when Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart came out on PC, suggesting that the PS5 could load its portal scene faster than a high-end PC. Well, what if we told you that the PC can load the portal scene faster than the PS5 by simply deleting a single file? Hell, scratch that. What if we told you that the game runs faster on PC than on PS5, even without using DirectStorage?

Compusemble has discovered that by simply deleting the “cache.pso” file from the game’s folder, PC gamers can boost loading times. When Compusemble deleted that file, its PC system (an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with 32GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT) was able to load the portal scene faster than the PS5.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart | PC CAN Load The Portal Sequence Faster Than The PS5 After All

Compusemble went one step ahead and completely disabled DirectStorage. And, even without DirectStorage, the PC was able to run the portal scene faster than the PS5.

What this ultimately means is that there isn’t any secret sauce that makes the PS5 run better than high-end PCs. And no, PS5’s dedicated hardware decompression tech is not enough to beat high-end PC systems.

The purpose of this article is to eliminate those inaccurate assumptions. Because, honestly, this whole thing has become a big farce.

At first, when Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart was still a PS5 exclusive, we’ve been hearing about how revolutionary the PS5 was. Then, when the game came out on PC, the narrative changed. Suddenly, people started claiming that the PS5’s dedicated hardware decompression tech was so powerful that it allowed it to run the portal scene faster than high-end PCs. However, as we’ve showcased above, that assumption has been busted.

In conclusion, high-end PCs are faster than the PS5, even without DirectStorage. And, to be honest, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Current high-end PCs do not actually benefit from DirectStorage’s GPU decompression. That’s because most high-end CPUs are powerful enough to handle DirectStorage. After all, we’ve seen this in both Rift Apart and Forspoken. On the other hand, DirectStorage’s GPU decompression can benefit mid-tier and low-tier PC systems. And that’s why developers should be offering an in-game DirectStorage setting to choose between CPU and GPU decompression!