1440p Ray Tracing and DLSS Performance
Next up, we’ll look at the impact of Ray Tracing and DLSS at 1440p to see if the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING can pull off a decent Ray Tracing experience at 1440p. For each game, we are using the game benchmark included with the game and reporting the average frames per second.
Far Cry 6
In Far Cry 6, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING achieved 83 FPS which tied with its 10GB counterpart but was 2 FPS below the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING and 6 below the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT. Overclocking the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING added 2 FPS to the total bringing it into a tie with its 3080 Ti counterpart.
Overall, much like the non-ray tracing results for Far Cry 6, it appears that there’s some other limit in play that is not GPU-centric.
Cyberpunk 2077
In Cyberpunk 2077, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING achieved 39.7 FPS in our manual run-through. Overclocking the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING rounded up to 43 FPS which still did not impress us from the enjoyment of gameplay perspective. If you intended on playing Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing on, the 3080 class card is not what you’d want.
Next, we enabled DLSS in “Quality” mode which pulled out a near doubling of performance across the board. Specifically, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING boosted up to 66.4 FPS and punched the overclocked value up to 71.8 FPS. At this point, if you find the extra eye candy brought by Ray Tracing to be good then this is a good combination.
Watch Dogs: Legion
In Watch Dogs Legion, the EVGA GEFORCE RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING achieved 57 frames per second, which is 17 frames per second faster than the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT, but 2 frames per second slower than the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 TiFTW3 ULTRA GAMING. Overclocking the EVGA GEFORCE RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING roared it into first with 61 FPS.
Next, we tried out the DLSS set to “Quality” mode and as you can see in the chart, it boosted the overall performance of the NVIDIA cards by a significant margin, to the extent that it makes for a great gaming experience to have both Ray Tracing and DLSS: Quality enabled. DLSS made Ray Tracing very playable at this resolution.
Metro Exodus
In Metro Exodus, the EVGA GEFORCE RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING cranked out 64 frames per second, which is 15.7 frames per second faster than the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT, and 3.5 FPS slower than the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING. Overclocking the EVGA GEFORCE RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING notched an additional 3.8 frames per second to the tally.
Next, we tried out DLSS turned on and as you can see in the chart, it boosted the overall performance of the NVIDIA cards by about 10 frames per second, to the extent that it makes for a great gaming experience to have both Ray Tracing and DLSS: Quality enabled.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING achieved 103 FPS which was bested by the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING’s 108 FPS, but ahead of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING and ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT.
Overclocking the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING powered it to the top of the chart at 112 FPS.
Dirt 5
In Dirt 5, the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING chalked up 117.7 FPS which was ahead of the ASUS TUF RX 6800 XT and EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING’s efforts, but behind the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING. Overclocking the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING brought it out front at 125.7 FPS.