The Quality mode in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is largely unnecessary, according to a recent report from well-respected benchmarkers. Most Death Stranding 2 players are hence advised to go with the Performance mode, especially if they’re playing the game on the PS5 Pro.
The follow-up to one of the most unusual open-world games in recent memory, Death Stranding 2 officially hit the market on June 26, following a brief early access period available to anyone who purchased one of its higher-tier editions. Like its predecessor, Kojima Productions’ newly debuted title offers players a choice between Quality and Performance modes, which has been standard practice for AAA games since the eighth console generation.
The Death Stranding 2 graphics modes aren’t created equal, according to a recent analysis by the benchmarking experts at Digital Foundry (via TheGamer), which characterizes the Quality preset as largely unnecessary. Although the base PS5 naturally makes a bit more compromises across every setting, it was still found to have no issues maintaining a stable frame rate across both modes: 30fps in Performance and 60fps in Quality.
Death Stranding 2’s Performance Mode Trade-Offs Are Minimal
In terms of what looks different, the most noticeable visual trade-offs Digital Foundry identified were reduced anti-aliasing quality and minor sub-pixel instability—artifacts such as shimmering, flickering, or crawling caused by very fine visual details (small textures used for things like wires or cables) not aligning cleanly with the screen’s pixel grid. As expected, these issues were more prominent on the base model than on the more powerful PS5 Pro. The mid-gen refresh also averaged a slightly higher resolution than the base model’s 1440p, but since the resolution is dynamic, the improvement is challenging to quantify, especially since the overall difference is marginal.
Ultimately, while Quality mode offers a slight visual improvement on the base PS5, it’s highly debatable whether the difference justifies sacrificing the responsiveness of 60 frames per second. On the PS5 Pro, the answer is a clear no: Death Stranding 2’s Quality mode looks nearly identical to Performance mode on Sony’s most powerful console to date, rendering it largely unnecessary.
Death Stranding 2 Graphics Modes Comparison
|
Feature |
Performance Mode |
Quality Mode |
|---|---|---|
|
Frame Rate (PS5) |
60fps (stable) |
30fps (stable) |
|
Frame Rate (Pro) |
60fps (stable) |
30fps (stable) |
|
Resolution (PS5) |
1440p, some reconstruction artifacts |
Slightly higher native res and cleaner image |
|
Resolution (Pro) |
Slightly above 1440p, less shimmer |
Technically sharper than Performance Mode but barely noticeable difference |
The redundancy of Quality mode on the more powerful console reflects Sony’s long-standing product messaging. Ever since the PS5 Pro’s reveal in September 2024, Sony has maintained that its mid-gen refresh is for people who don’t want to choose between quality and performance modes and are instead willing to pay for the fidelity of the former with the frame rate of the latter.