Gameplay Performance
We are going to focus on a 4K gameplay performance with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition video card. We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported. We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs. Ray Tracing performance will be shown on a separate page. For video card comparisons we are using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition video card and an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT video card.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine. The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR. We use the built-in preset to set “HIGH QUALITY” which sets the highest game graphics, without Ray Tracing. We manually enable DX12 and ASYNC Compute. For our benchmark, we are using a custom manual run-through at the end of the game hopping between rooftops, as well as free-roaming on the ground city level, as well as a forested area, in the daylight.
In Dying Light 2 at 4K with the highest in-game settings the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition is playable averaging 55FPS. The GeForce RTX 3090 FE does allow a playable gameplay experience with everything turned on, except Ray Tracing. It’s just 1% faster than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE, and this is cause the RTX 3080 Ti can keep up quite well due to it having a higher GPU Boost clock frequency while gaming. Therefore, both video cards are basically similar and provide a similar gameplay experience. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 FE is only 5% faster. The Radeon RX 6900 XT with the new May 2022 Preview Performance driver keeps up quite well with these breed of cards in this game.
Enabling DLSS and or FSR greatly improves performance at 4K and really makes the game perfectly smooth and playable. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 47% on the GeForce RTX 3090 FE up to 81FPS, and the game is just incredibly smooth. Utilizing FSR on the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is also a huge boon, it improves performance by a much greater degree, 54% and brings the Radeon RX 6900 XT to the same performance as the GeForce RTX 3090 FE with DLSS.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction was released on PC in January of 2022. This game uses the Ubisoft Anvil gaming engine and supports DLSS and multiple TAA options as well as a high-definition Texture Pack. We are running the game at the highest graphics settings, at a fixed 100% resolution. We will test with TAA, TAA 2X, and DLSS where supported. We are using the built-in benchmark.
In Rainbow Six Extraction this game performs really fast on the GeForce RTX 3090 FE at 4K with the highest settings and TAA. We are getting 117FPS, which is just 1 more than the RTX 3080 Ti and 23% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT in this game. You can make it run even faster by turning on DLSS which brings performance up 43% to a whopping 167FPS for high refresh rate monitors.
Turning on TAA-2X AA setting is a very demanding option in this game at 4K. However, the GeForce RTX 3090 FE is still playable at 4K with TAA-2X, and keeps the same scaling above the RTX 3080 Ti. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the RTX 3090 FE is 35% faster, whereas the RX 6900 XT is not playable.
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 was released on PC in November of 2021 and it uses the ForzaTech game engine. For our evaluation, we raise the in-game graphic settings beyond the “Extreme” preset to the maximum game settings. In addition to the “Extreme” preset we raise SSAO Quality to Ultra, Reflection Quality to Extreme, SSR Quality to Ultra. We also disable MSAA and use FXAA. We test AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) performance from the Resolution Scaling option. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing.
In Forza Horizon 5 at 4K with maximum game settings and FXAA the tables turn. We find the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is the faster video card, it’s playable at 81FPS and is 8% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 FE video card. The GeForce RTX 3090 FE is still very playable of course at 75FPS, but it is ultimately slower than the Radeon RX 6900 XT and just under the RTX 3080 Ti as well. The reason for that one is pretty easy to understand, GPU clock speed is more advantageous in this game, thus the RTX 3080 Ti comes out slightly on top. At any rate, both video cards are still playable at max settings at 4K.
The Radeon RX 6900 XT got a pretty big performance boost in this game with the latest May 2022 Performance Preview driver, before that driver it did trail performance, but with this new driver, performance is now on top in this game, so that new driver made this happen. Then, consider we can enable CAS in this game to further improve performance. On the RTX 3090 FE that improves performance by 15% and brings performance up to 86FPS. On the Radeon RX 6900 XT, with this new driver, CAS performance got a big performance update and is a 20% performance uplift on the Radeon RX 6900 XT bringing it up to 97FPS.
Far Cry 6
Far Cry 6 was released in October of 2021 and uses the Dunia Engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and turned on. We utilize the “Ultra” graphics preset which sets all options to the highest game settings. This game supports FSR upscaling.
In Far Cry 6 at 4K with the highest in-game settings and HD Textures the GeForce RTX 3090 FE is very playable at 83FPS and matches the RTX 3080 Ti in gameplay. With the new AMD driver, this game also boosted FPS a little, and now the Radeon RX 6900 XT is 2% faster than the RTX 3090 FE, but both practically perform the same. Turning on FSR also improves performance on all video cards, the RTX 3090 FE improves performance by 33% bringing performance up above 100FPS at 4K, which is an impressive and smooth experience at 4K.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.52 and perform a long manual run-through driving in the game’s open world. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings, mainly “Ultra”. This game supports DLSS and FSR.
As usual, Cyberpunk 2077 is very demanding at 4K and “Ultra” settings. No video card is playable without DLSS or FSR at 4K and “Ultra” settings. We do see the fastest GPU Boost clock speed on the RTX 3080 Ti constituting a slight win, but only very slight. When we enable DLSS performance improves by 52% bringing performance up to 49FPS. The game is still not really that playable, you’ll either have to lower the DLSS quality to improve performance more or the better option is lower the in-game settings from “Ultra” down to “High” or “Medium” even on the RTX 3090 at 4K to make it playable. With the new AMD driver FSR performance in this game came up quite a bit on the Radeon RX 6900 XT, here we see FSR is improving performance by 74% on the Radeon RX 6900 XT at 4K, which is pretty darned amazing for a performance uplift.
Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 Game of the Year Edition
MS Flight Sim 2020 was released in August of 2020 but has received a big update in November 2021 called the Game of the Year Edition update. This brought with it support for the DX12 API which we have enabled for testing. We are utilizing the game’s “Ultra” preset for graphics settings and live terrain is enabled. We perform a manual run-through of an activity landing in New York with an outside view camera.
In MS Flight Sim 2020 at 4K and “Ultra” settings all three video cards are playable, but the GeForce RTX 3090 FE is the fastest. It’s 10% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT, and practically the same experience as the RTX 3080 Ti.
Watch Dogs Legion
Watch Dogs Legion was released on the PC in October of 2020 and uses the Disrupt game engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and enabled for testing. We use the built-in graphics preset of “Ultra” for testing. This game supports DLSS upscaling.
In Watch Dogs Legion the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 FE can play this game very well at 4K with “Ultra” settings average of 63FPS, the game is playable. The RTX 3080 Ti is slightly faster, again because of clock speed. However, turn on DLSS and the game is super smooth, DLSS improves performance by 37%. With the new AMD driver the Radeon RX 6900 XT also now keeps up in this game, and it is on par, same performance, and same gameplay experience as the GeForce RTX 3090 FE.