SnowRunner: PC vs Xbox Series X vs Xbox One

SnowRunner graphics are said to look best on a high-end PC, but is there much difference in reality? Test your eyes and find out in this A Tribe Called Cars video.

Hello and welcome to another video from A Tribe Called Cars, if you’re new here gently caress that subscribe and like button. There’s some construction going on outside, but hopefully you don’t hear it.

Now I know many SnowRunner fans are wondering about a next-generation update that would make the off-road simulator shine brighter on PS5, Xbox Series X (reviewed here) and Series S. Truth is, there’s still no word on a release date – assuming it’s even happening.

So what I thought I would do instead is compare SnowRunner on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and a pretty high-end PC equipped with the gamer, scalper and crypto miner’s favourite, the new Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card.

Why? Because maybe you’re wondering how much of a benefit there is in upgrading – especially now that getting a next-generation console takes a lot of effort and graphics card pricing has gone to the moon. The opposite of GameStop shares. Or maybe you just want to enjoy a PC vs console flame war.

To make this more interesting, kind of, I won’t tell you which SnowRunner version is on screen until the end the clip. So try to guess and let me know your observations. If you have any.

All footage is filmed on a display that matches the native resolution of what it can output. As in, the Xbox One is at 1080p and the Xbox Series X and PC are at 4K unless otherwise stated.

Therefore for the truest representation, feel free to match the resolution quality on YouTube to each clip. Or not, if that’s too much hassle – you should still be able to see a difference.

I’ve upped the output rendering quality as high as possible to minimise quality loss, which means a much larger file size. But that will not completely undo any pesky YouTube compression.

Nor can I help a little stutter, I now have 32GB of super speedy RAM but my aging Ryzen 7 CPU struggles with the 4K workload.

You’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s locked at 60fps almost all of the time if I’m not using OBS recording software – I guess I’ll have to raid the piggy bank and get a new CPU at some point. Maybe that will help. Although, like graphics cards, they’re like gold dust in the UK.

Side note: I wanted to showcase the PS5, but sadly I’ve not been able to get one. However, from what I know it should be similar to Xbox Series X. Anyway, cue that music and look for differences.

The winner?

So what do I think about the benefits of a next-gen console and PC? Well, the most noticeable for both is faster loading. On Xbox One swapping between maps can take 45 seconds, on Xbox Series X and a PC with an NVME SSD it’s around three times faster. Bliss.

The user-interface is snappier, too. Everything feels nice and fast and smooth and responsive. There’s much less time spent waiting for things to appear or happen and that makes a big difference to the experience.

Sadly for console, the other biggest takeaway is that side-by-side 60 frames per second is so much nicer to look at and actually makes it easier to drive. A next-generation console SnowRunner update would be great, assuming the devs can make it work.

However, I noticed it only takes a short time to re-adapt to 30fps when swapping between the two. A combination of 4K detail of the Series X and the lack of needing to adjust graphics settings for a solid frame-rate works wonders.

As for the 4K vs 1080p debate, it depends on your hardware. Maxed out SnowRunner on PC at 1080p looks impressive although you can see the reduced number of polygons, particularly when it’s been recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

Meanwhile on Xbox One, 1080p is flat and cartoonish sometimes. On Series X at 4K, the scenery looks great yet it lacks the same crisp sheen as on PC despite the fact the frame rate is pretty solid.

I also noticed that the visuals seem darker and murkier on Xbox One, although this could be more about the settings differences between it and my HDR-enabled Series X.

So, then, it’s a win for the PC master race. Except in some ways it’s not because to match the Series X at 4K means spending serious money.

Just my ASUS 3080 TUF graphics card can sell for around £2,000 and that’s before you factor in an SSD, CPU, RAM, power supply unit, case fans, CPU cooler, monitor and more. A new Series X or PS5 costs a third of that.

That and the fact the next-gen consoles are so unfussy and low maintenance means it’s a lot easier to give up higher fidelity 60fps gaming than you might think. But if you want the best of the best SnowRunner experience, the answer is PC and the question is how deep are your pockets?

And that’s it for this video, I hope you found it useful. Maybe even enjoyable. Subscribe and like if you would be so kind. I shall see you in the next video! Take care, byeee.