If theres one game I enjoyed immensely last year and yet begrudgingly forced myself to endure, its Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. No, not because of the story, changes, mini-games or any other complaints others may have had (though some issues annoyed me more than others). It was purely due to the visual quality and performance on PS5.As much as I was looking forward to Performance mode delivering 60 FPS, I also mentally prepared for some hits to the graphical quality. They were far more drastic than imagined, though, and while Square Enix did improve several aspects at launch and after, the fidelity wasnt doing it for me. Its a shame because of how great the environments, cutscenes, and battles looked.While it received an update on the PS5 Pro, utilizing PSSR to achieve a 4K output while hitting 60 frames per second, Rebirths PC version is what I truly looked forward to. Would it finally showcase this visual masterpiece in all its glory? Would Cloud and friends look even better than before? Could it be the definitive way to experience the sagas continuation, following up on Final Fantasy 7 Remakes excellent port?Now that its almost here, the answer is yes, for the most part. Some aspects could still do with improvements and further optimization but as it stands, Square Enix has delivered. Lets jump into everything you should know about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirths performance and graphical fidelity on PC as well as how it compares to the PS5 version.Graphics Settings and Test RigThe graphics settings for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on PC are pretty standard fare. Graphics quality falls into three presets Low, Medium, and High but you can customize separate options for minimum and maximum Dynamic Resolution Scaling, background model detail, ocean detail, character model detail and effect details.Texture resolution, shadow quality, fog quality its all here, and there are even options to adjust the number of characters displayed and their shadow distance. A separate font is also available for better text legibility when playing at lower resolutions. The anti-aliasing is intriguing because it offers three options TAA, TAAU and DLSS.There are no separate upscaling options for DLSS like Quality or Performance, much less the ability to select AMD FSR or Intel XeSS. Square Enix never really said it was implementing the latter, but not even having different modes for DLSS is odd. Heres hoping it arrives sometime after launch if only to provide those in need with the option.Our test rig consisted of an AMD 5950X, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB of RAM, and an NVMe SSD PCI-e 4.0. Aside from 50 percent minimum Dynamic Resolution Scaling, all settings were on High with DLSS anti-aliasing, 38402160 resolution and 90 FPS enabled. Characters displayed is set to seven, while their shadow display distance is set to eight. So, how does the game fare on PC compared to the PS5 version on Quality Mode?PC vs PS5 Quality ModeBeyond resolutions up to 4K, DLSS, 120 FPS and adjustable displayed characters, Square Enix touts other improvements with the PC version. These include significantly improved lighting, allowing for more clarity, higher texture density and a bump to the background polygon density.The PS5 version of Quality Mode targets 30 frames per second and around 4K with a dynamic resolution. While the image clarity is generally decent on the console, its not as sharp as the PC version. It does stick close to the 30 FPS target, which is much better than dealing with the inconsistent Performance Mode. However, the fidelity is better overall on PC.The lighting alone presents a noticeable jump, coming across as more natural, while shadow edges look smoother and less blurry than on PS5. Perhaps the only real downside is the noticeable pop-in, especially in the open-world environments. The PS5 version had this too, for sure, but the increased fidelity and image quality make it all the more noticeable. Then again, its distracting when foliage is loading just a few feet away.Be that as it may, the PC version is still pretty stunning, with the high-resolution assets and lighting shining throughout.PC PerformanceSquare Enix recommends an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or an Intel Core i7-10700, a Radeon 7 5700X or GeForce RTX 4080, and 16 GB RAM for 2160p/60 FPS on High settings. Our testing rig falls short in that regard, but we still achieved some pretty good performance. It was fairly consistent at 90 FPS, sometimes dropping to 85 before jumping back up again. Strangely enough, the same difference occurred when playing at 60 FPS, with frames occasionally dropping to 55. Though some of the busier fights and a few scenes in the first hour led to these frame drops, the PC version is otherwise strongly consistent.On my own set-up consisting of a Core i5-11400, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, and a GeForce RTX 4060, performance was pretty solid. When dropping to 1080p from 1440p, it felt more consistent even with pretty much everything set to High (Square Enix recommends Medium, so your mileage may vary). The same frame drops would occasionally occur, but once again, it didnt impact my enjoyment of the title.ConclusionFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth is unarguably one of 2024s greatest games and an exceptional follow-up to Remake, warts and all. The graphical issues on PS5 did it no favors, and you really have to wonder how many didnt jump in at launch because of the same. Even with the PS5 Pro offering improvements, dropping $700 to experience one game in better detail isnt exactly fiscally responsible.The PC version isnt perfect by any means. Between the pop-in, slight frame drops and lack of DLSS options, theres room for improvement. Id also like to see additional options in the future to fine-tune the fidelity even further.However, this is still a quality experience and represents the first step to really doing justice to Rebirths art direction, environments, cutscenes, characters, and so much more. Though Square Enix could probably offer even more customization in the future, the lighting improvements are an unexpected but welcome surprise that makes the world feel more vibrant and alive. Of course, the keyboard and mouse support isnt too shabby either and being able to assign functions to multiple keys and mouse buttons is nice.If youve been waiting to play Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on hardware that can truly make it shine, the PC port is definitely recommended. Heres hoping that the development team continues to refine and improve it, further enhancing what is currently the best way to experience Cloud and companys journey.