Latest PS5 Firmware Update Reportedly Improves Performance

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The PS5's already loaded new firmware update also appears to have improved performance for a handful of games.

One of the biggest updates to date for the PS5 went live earlier this month, adding new features and making a whole heap of improvements. The console's 3D audio can now be experienced through regular old TV speakers and not just via a headset. You can also expand the PS5's internal storage for the first time, allowing you to store and play PS5 games somewhere else other than its SSD which has very limited space.

PlayStation revealed a number of other tweaks made via the latest firmware update, but it doesn't appear to have detailed absolutely everything. Extensive testing of the new update compared to the old one by Digital Foundry and Gamers Nexus shows that the performance of certain games has also been improved upon.

Both the old and new models of the PS5 were tested to determine whether it was the hardware or the software improving performance. As you can see in the video below – the results of the testing are right at the start – it does indeed appear to be the update doing the heavy lifting. Games are running up to 3% faster following the update, regardless of which model of PS5 they are running on.

The testing has only been limited to two games, Control and Devil May Cry 5, for the time being. It may mean that a lot more games run slightly faster too, which is pretty impressive considering the already-quick load times of the PS5. You'll have to see for yourselves if other games are running a little faster now than they were before, although it might be difficult to tell for certain unless you have a second un-updated PS5 for comparison.

If you're one of 10 million-plus people lucky enough to own a PS5 and think it can't possibly get any better, we have some very good news for you. Apparently, PlayStation has a long list of ideas it wants to try and implement via future system updates. Loading times are only going to get faster and in-game environments are only going to keep looking better as we venture deeper into this latest generation of PlayStation console.