Technologies

Hogwarts Legacy: The Best PS5 and Xbox Graphics Options

The new Harry Potter game can have up to five separate graphics preset options.

While PC games often have endless menus and submenus of graphics settings to tinker with, console games have historically run the same way for everyone on the same hardware. More recently, as consoles have diverged into multiple versions, such as the PS4/PS4 Pro or the Xbox Series X/Series S, you might get a choice between Quality and Performance modes (typically emphasizing either resolution or frames-per-second), but that’s about it.

In Hogwarts Legacy, however, the Xbox and PS5 versions of the game have up to five available graphics settings. That’s more than the usual Quality/Performance split, and the details of each can be a bit opaque. That’s especially true considering one of the big selling points of console gaming is that you don’t have to worry about settings or compatibility issues.

Which one to pick depends on a couple of things – your preference for sparkly eye candy over smooth motion, and whether or not you have a TV that supports VRR (variable refresh rate) and HDR.

As a quick rundown, Hogwarts Legacy’s five graphics settings are:

Fidelity mode
Fidelity mode with raytracing
Performance mode
Balanced mode
HFR (high frame rate) mode

The question comes down to: Do you want the game to look better or run smoother? Quality settings, called Fidelity in this case, in console games generally increase the resolution and add graphics detail and complexity, but often lock the number of frames per second down to 30. Performance settings can drop the resolution and remove or downgrade graphics features, but offer higher frame rates, ideally at least 60fps — but not always. Newer TVs with higher refresh rates (or variable refresh rates) can run even faster frame rates.

In testing Hogwarts Legacy, it’s not surprising that I ended up on the Balanced setting. It feels like a shame to skip the high-end graphics the PS5 (and Xbox Series X) are capable of. But at the same time, playing at 30fps feels choppy and unsatisfying. Hence, the in-the-middle option.

I’ve also been spoiled by testing the game on a series of high-end gaming PCs. On the new Razer Blade 18, which has an Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, I was able to run the game at its highest graphics settings with QHD resolution and get frame rates above 100fps in most cases.

Even an slightly older gaming laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3070 was able to run at a mostly consistent 60fps at high graphics settings and FHD resolution. Both of these cases, when connected to a 65-inch LG OLED TV, were far superior visually to any of the PS5 options and didn’t require me to choose graphics quality over frame rate.

What do all these performance mode settings actually do?

As Hogwarts Legacy is mostly exploration and conversation with some fighting, you can get away with the Fidelity mode and not feel like you’re losing out on gameplay. Fast-paced action or online competitive games generally require those higher frame rates for effective play.

Adding the ray tracing option tweaked the visuals slightly on the PS5, most noticeably adding more realistic reflections. But it also seemed to further degrade performance. It’s worth checking out, but you might not stick with it.

Besides the Balanced setting, the Performance setting is also somewhere in the middle. It drops some detail from Balanced, but feels like it hits 60fps more consistently without the occasional slowdown in the Balanced mode.

The extreme option on the other end is HFR Performance, which maximizes the frame rate but makes the game look worse. Again, a casual adventure/exploration game like this doesn’t need anything over ~60fps, and only some TVs even support this.

What performance setting should I choose for Hogwarts Legacy?

For my money, if playing on a PS5, I’d choose the Balanced mode, but only after sampling the other available options as well. My second choice would be Fidelity mode, and in fact, I might switch back and forth between the two depending on my mood.

But the overall best experience is going to be on a gaming PC, and our breakdown of the required specs for that is here.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 8, #728

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 8, #728.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle could be tricky. The purple category is one of those «sounds like» groups, that can be really tough to figure out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Keep at it.

Green group hint: Think Wall Street animals.

Blue group hint: Online encyclopedia subheads.

Purple group hint: $$$.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Persist.

Green group: Animal metaphors in economics.

Blue group: Sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page.

Purple group: Homophones of slang for money.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is persist. The four answers are hold, last, stand and stay.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is animal metaphors in economics. The four answers are bear, bull, dove and hawk.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sidebar info on a person’s Wikipedia page. The four answers are born, education, occupation and spouse.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is homophones of slang for money. The four answers are bred, cache, doe and lute.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for June 8, #1450

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,450 for June 8.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough, especially if your first guesses are heavy on vowels. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer, but one is the repeated letter, so you’ll see it twice.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with L.

Wordle hint No. 4: Ending

Today’s Wordle answer ends with a vowel.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to a contract where someone is given the right to use something for a specific time and payment.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is LEASE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, June 7, No. 1449 was REUSE.

Recent Wordle answers

June 3, No. 1445: ADMIN

June 4, No. 1446: CEASE

June 5, No. 1447: DATUM

June 6, No. 1448: EDIFY

Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time.

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started.

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.