Marvel’s Spider-Man is a great superhero game for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players. And with its recent PC release, it’s available to a whole new legion of Spidey fans.
Since Marvel’s Spider-Man is now playable across three platforms (and Steam Deck, which is basically a platform unto itself), we decided to do a bit of testing. Just how quickly does Spider-Man load on PC vs Steam Deck? What about PC vs the original PS4 version? How does PC stand up to PS5?
Let’s set up some tests to answer those questions, and see just how quick Spidey can really go.
How fast is the fast-travel load time?
Swinging around New York as Spidey happens pretty quickly in Marvel’s Spider-Man. But you know what’s faster? Instantly teleporting from one side of Manhattan to the other via the game’s fast-travel system.
For this test, I set up the remastered Marvel’s Spider-Man on my work PC (Intel i7-10700K processor, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card), my Steam Deck (loading off of my Samsung EVO 512 GM microSD card), and my PS5. I also set up the non-remastered version of the game on my PS4 Slim.
For the test, I fast traveled back and forth between the police station in Harlem and the fast-travel point for the FEAST homeless shelter in Chinatown. I started my stopwatch the moment I initiated fast travel (after I’d held down the button to confirm where I wanted to go) and stopped it as soon as I regained control of Spider-Man. I ran each test at least five times, until I got a consistent range of results without any major deviations.
Here are my results, from fastest to slowest:
- PC: 2.8-3.5 seconds
- PS5: 3-3.1 seconds
- Steam Deck: 6-8 seconds
- PS4: 17-20 seconds
My PC and PS5 were extremely close in these tests, with PS5 being the most consistent platform.
What about the boot-up?
For the second test, I wanted to see how quickly the game could kick me into the open world from the start menu. I started my timer as I hit the “continue” button and stopped it as soon as I regained control of Spider-Man.
I used all the same equipment for this second test as I did for the first, and always made sure to load Spider-Man into the same location (the FEAST rooftop). I loaded from the menu at least three times on each platform, until I got a consistent range with only one major deviation.
Here are my results, fastest to slowest:
- PS5: 2 seconds
- PC: 2.9-3.35 seconds
- Steam Deck: 7-13 seconds
- PS4: 35 seconds
The aforementioned deviation for this test was the initial load for my Steam Deck: The first time I booted up the game for the test session, it took 22 seconds to get started. Every other time, it was at least nine seconds faster than that.
So, which platform is fastest?
My PS5 and PC were neck-and-neck for both tests. Both make for great places to play the remastered Marvel’s Spider-Man. (While they’re both comparable in load times, PC gets the added benefit of Steam Deck’s cloud save functionality. So take that as you will.)
Speaking of Steam Deck — it performed quite well considering just how big Marvel’s Spider-Man is. It’s obviously significantly slower than a good desktop PC or a modern console, but for running off an SD card, I was impressed with how little time I spent waiting.
PS4 clearly brings up the rear during these experiments, taking nearly three times longer than Steam Deck to load into the same area. Marvel’s Spider-Man is still worth checking out on PS4 — despite aspects that haven’t aged well at all — even if it’s just a springboard to the excellent Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.