‘Rise Of The Tomb Raider’ Launches On PC, But How Does It Stack Up Against The Xbox One Release?

Rise of the Tomb Raider has hit PC digital shelves on Steam and the Windows 10 store today, and many PC fans have been eager to get their hands on the latest installment in Lara Croft’s adventures. Since originally being announced as an Xbox One exclusive at Gamescom a year ago, many speculated that Rise of the Tomb Raider would never be seen off an Xbox One console. However, with the announcement that it was simply a timed exclusive, fans on all platforms got a glimmer of hope. The PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider has released today; however, PlayStation 4 fans are still required to wait till this holiday to get their hands on the game.

What made PC players even happier about the release was simply due to the fact that famed PC port specialist Nixxes was behind the Rise of the Tomb Raider port, much like they were with the previous Crystal Dynamics installment. But how does the PC release compare with the previous release on Xbox One? As it’s been proven, thanks to the nature of PC hardware, games on the platform are entirely scalable. Higher resolutions, more robust graphics options, and higher, smoother framerates are the bedrock of what distinguishes the platform. However, just because there’s increased power doesn’t always mean the developer or port specialist will harness it to its fullest. Thankfully, according to Eurogamer‘s most recent Digital Foundry analysis, Rise of the Tomb Raider not only looks to be a great port, but one that pushes even some of the more powerful PCs to their max.

The differences between the Xbox One and PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider are pretty apparent. As Digital Foundry points out, many of the PC version’s goodies are absent or dialed back in the Xbox One version. Shadows, Anisotropic filtering, dynamic foliage, and so on are ramped up in Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC. In addition, Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC utilizes an exclusive full-screen mode that helps in allowing Nvidia’s Downsampled Resolution, allowing PC players to play games at higher resolutions such as 4K on a 1080p monitor.

One of the major differences between the two versions has to do with the additional tessellation on PC, though it’s used pretty much exclusively on the snow deformation in Rise of the Tomb Raider for Xbox One. Tessellation is a technique where additional geometry is added to the scene, giving the presentation a more realistic look. As it pertains to Rise of the Tomb Raider, many of the ground textures such as rocks, cliff faces, trees, and the snow are given extra tessellation in order to give extra depth to the game’s presentation.

Many on Steam are crying that the game is unoptimized, but Rise of the Tomb Raider is simply more demanding than a lot of games to date. Even running the game on a set-up with a great processor and one of the more common, and powerful, graphics cards on the market, Rise of the Tomb Raider has a hard time maintaining 60 frames per second. The i7 4790K stacked with a Nvidia GTX 970 running at maximum settings. This is one of the first times that Digital Foundry’s budget PC wasn’t up to snuff to play at console settings, which is something that rarely happens.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a breath of fresh air in terms of PC ports, and it’s no surprise given Nixxes’ background. For fans looking to play the game on PC, Rise of the Tomb Raider is available on Steam and the Windows 10 store for 10 percent off, though if you’re not adverse to searching it can be found for less as well on other PC storefronts.

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[Image via Square Enix]