Following growing speculation that Resident Evil 4’s latest patch has negatively affected its performance on PC, Digital Foundry has confirmed this through its own testing.
The outlet tested both the current and previous version of the game (by way of a mod), with the core difference between the two being the type of DRM implemented. Previously, Resident Evil 4 made use of Denuvo DRM, while its latest update has replaced it with Enigma Protector DRM. This new version of DRM has introduced major bottlenecks when it comes to CPU performance, with Digital Foundry measuring nearly 2ms lost to CPU processing times in some instances.
With its testing setup that prioritized CPU-limited scenarios, this manifested a massive decrease in output frame rate, down to 144fps from 217fps. It should be noted that these slowdowns won’t be as noticeable, if at all, in GPU-limited scenarios, or in instances where the game’s AI is providing a larger overhead than the new DRM features. Still, it’s an example of an update measurably changing the performance of a product years after release without any real benefit to its players.
