Watch Dogs Legion Ray Tracing and DLSS RTX 30 Performance

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DLSS 2.0 Performance

This game supports NVIDIA DLSS 2.0.  Therefore, we want to see what it adds to performance over the baseline performance without it.  The game supports “Performance DLSS”, “Quality DLSS”, “Balanced DLSS” and “Ultra Performance DLSS.”  The best image quality is naturally under the “Quality” mode.

GeForce RTX 3080 FE

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition 1080p DLSS Performance Graph

In the above graph, we have the GeForce RTX 3080 FE at 1080p.  Now, 1080p doesn’t gain any performance and looks odd because basically, it is completely CPU limited with DLSS.  There’s really no reason to enable DLSS at 1080p on the RTX 3080 FE.

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition 1440p DLSS Performance Graph

At 1440p is where we start to see DLSS make a difference.  It takes is from 84FPS without DLSS to 96-100 FPS depending on the setting.  Even the Quality mode adds quite a bit more FPS.

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition 4K DLSS Performance Graph

At 4K is where DLSS really shines.  It takes that rather slow 55FPS and even at the Quality DLSS mode takes performance up to 75FPS which is much more playable.  That’s a 36% performance increase.  The other modes are faster, but they don’t look as good either, there is a noticeable loss in image quality with the performance modes.

GeForce RTX 3070 FE

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition 1080p DLSS Performance Graph

With the GeForce RTX 3070 FE much is true at 1080p, though we do gain about 10FPS here, 90FPS was already very good.

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition 1440p DLSS Performance Graph

At 1440p DLSS helps bring performance up, Quality DLSS is 26% faster.  The performance modes are faster still but do not look as good.

Watch Dogs Legion GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition 4K DLSS Performance Graph

At 4K is where DLSS really helps the GeForce RTX 3070 FE to be playable.  It is not playable at default at 4K at “Ultra” at 43FPS.  However, even turning on the best quality DLSS mode brings performance up to 60FPS now at 4K.  This makes a big difference and makes the game very playable on the RTX 3070 FE at 4K. 

DLSS Card Comparison

Watch Dogs Legion 1080p DLSS Performance Comparison GeForce RTX 3080 FE versus GeForce RTX 3070 FE Performance Graph

At 1080p the GeForce RTX 3080 FE and GeForce RTX 3070 FE are identical with “Quality” DLSS.

Watch Dogs Legion 1440p DLSS Performance Comparison GeForce RTX 3080 FE versus GeForce RTX 3070 FE Performance Graph

At 1440p the GeForce RTX 3080 FE is 9% faster than the RTX 3070 FE with “Quality” DLSS.

Watch Dogs Legion 4K DLSS Performance Comparison GeForce RTX 3080 FE versus GeForce RTX 3070 FE Performance Graph

At 4K the GeForce RTX 3080 FE is 25% faster than the RTX 3070 FE with “Quality” DLSS.

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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