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

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 17, #1428

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,428 for May 17.

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 super easy, and there’s only one vowel, so you’ll have to chip away at guessing the consonants. 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 no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is one vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter G.

Wordle hint No. 4: Past tense

Today’s Wordle answer is in the past tense.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to being an adult.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is GROWN.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, May 16, No. 1427 was FIFTH.

Recent Wordle answers

May 12, No. 1423: BICEP

May 13, No. 1424: AWARE

May 14, No. 1425: BONGO

May 15, No. 1426: EAGER

Will Wordle run out of words?

When Wordle began, creator Josh Wardle used a list of five-letter words he’d shared with his partner, picking only the words they recognized. While that’s more than 2,000 words, more than half of them have already been used.

Wordle editor Tracy Bennett admitted that the game will eventually have to come to grips with the fact that the word list is not eternal.

«One possibility is that we could recycle old words at some point, like when we get close to the end,» Bennett told a Wordle player on TikTok.

She also said the editors might throw all the words back in and reuse them, or allow plurals, or past tense, something that’s not done now.

Bennett hasn’t commented on it, but it seems possible Wordle could expand to six-letter words, too. Options abound.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 17, #440

Here are hints — and all of the answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 440 for May 17.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one. It relies on you knowing a bit about a certain sport. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: She’s got game.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Caitlin Clark.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

SOME, TOME, TOMES, MEET, SEER, TEES, GAMS, GEAR, MAST, TROT, MART, MARTS, RALLY, MALL, RICE, MICE, MAGE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

LYNX, DREAM, FEVER, STORM, WINGS, LIBERTY, MERCURY.

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BASKETBALL. To find it, start with the B that’s four letters to the right on the very bottom row, and wind up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.