Gran Turismo Sport on PS4 Pro vs Forza 7 on Xbox One X @4K

DoggieHowser · November 14, 2017

It's taken a long time to get all the bits and pieces tied up but I finally had lift off over the weekend.

The first piece of the puzzle - the Sony 65Z9D FALD LCD UHD HDR TV.

It is about a year old now - but it is still a stellar TV but not without a few niggles.

a. HDR@4K60fps is only available on HDMI port 2 and port 3. Not an issue if you pass through an HDMI2.0/HDCP2.2 18Gbps AVR/AVP but in my study room, it was a real pain when I found it out after the fact. Hopefully once I get my Smyth Realiser A16 to mimic my main room 7.1.4 system and use it as an HDMI switch, it should not be an issue.

b. No Bluetooth audio support (found in the newer models just not the Z9D)

On the plus side, it is plenty bright for HDR gaming and black levels this side of OLED is phenomenal.

The second piece of the puzzle was trying to get a proper seat/layout.

I always knew it was going to be these guys - a local Aussie firm

https://www.pagnianimports.com.au

Got this off eBay when there was a 15% off discount code a few months back.

That way the wheel was properly mounted and bolted to the seat. No amount of hard braking would push the pedals away from the seat

The problem was that I could only fix ONE steering wheel on this setup and I wanted one I could use on both the PS4 and Xbox. Licensing deals made this nigh impossible.

Years ago I had one of these Fanatec Turbo S wheel (still worked in Project Cars 1 on the PS4!):

which worked great for both PS3 and Xbox 360 but even at $800, it was still a toy. The pedals felt no better than the old Logitech ones and that stick shift was terrible.

But Fanatec had already upped their game in the intervening years and they finally sorted out their licensing in a very cunning way.

They put the Xbox One compatibility in the wheel attachment and put the PS4 functionality in a wheel base.

So Sony licensed a full PS4 compatible product (complete wheel and pedals) but you could always order a replacement steering wheel to add Xbox One compatibility.

The nice thing about the Fanatec kit was the modular approach.

So I could add a better load-cell brake pedal

And then the Xbox One compatible rim

wrapped in lovely Alcantara

And the ClubSport Shifter SQ1.5 (can be set as a full R+6+1 gated shifter or in sequential mode with a switch)

Ideally, I would have loved this wheel (but they never added XB1 compatibility :()

Would have been the only Porsche I could ever afford in this lifetime

The final pieces were the consoles and the games. JB HiFi had an offer on the PS4Pro a few months back and the Xbox One X was finally launched last week.

But my study room was in a disarray. I had to dismantle all my old PCs, my old 42" LCD TV, Thunderbolt dock, MacMinis, Xbox 360, USB HDDs and all manner of junk that had piled on top of a dining table I had repurposed as a study room desk. Took me almost 3 weekends to clear everything out, and clean and put the new system in place. And also finish installing the racing seat.

I did encounter a few niggles along the way - the wheel stand doesn't have the exact 3 bolt holes for the wheel base (using the table clamp for now) and the pedal base didn't have the right bolt pattern for the Fanatec pedals so that's using globs of Blutac to hold it in place. Worked well initially until I started racing.. the amount of brake pressure on the load cell needed to pass Gran Turismo driving tests meant the Blutac wasn't enough. Pagnian said there is a new base plate that would allow the pedals to bolt in - and they will ship that to me.. so fingers crossed.

Moment of truth arrived over the weekend.

Here are some of my initial impressions

UI - GT Sport feels more structured, more organised. F7 feels like everything is scattered all over the place. I think I ended up missing a level up reward because I wasn't on the right screen when it happened - as I was buying a virtual car in a different screen.

Progression - GT Sport lets a newbie start from scratch. F7 uses driving aids to help newbies start in a race. Tie. Depends on what you are looking for

Steering Wheel and ForceFeedback (FFB) Control - GT Sport hands down. Recognises the Fanatec CSL Elite PS4 immediately including rev lights and wheel LED. Good preset of FFB settings from start.

FFB on F7 requires some fine-tuning. Out of the box FFB effect were just too high and unrealistic. Also F7 doesn't see the LED rev lights or rev strip indicators.

Graphics - GT Sport @4K is super smooth at constant 60fps. F7 @4K feels like a PC game with the odd dropped frames/screen tearing during menus. Rock solid during game play.

GT Sport uses HDR convincingly - beautiful specular highlights that feels like glare. F7 feels like it has better shadows/reflections. F7 feels more vibrant. GT Sport feels more subdued but ends up looking more realistic.

Weather effects are bloody amazing on F7. And I can tell the developers put in a lot of work (and compute cycles) to render things like reflections of the dashboard on the windscreen and shadows over the car dashboard (like during overcast weather).

This video pretty much mirrors what I experienced. Was not aware the GT Sport rendered in 1800p internally and upsampled to 4K output vs native 4K everything on Forza 7.