Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition

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Gameplay Performance

We are going to focus on 4K gameplay performance with the Overclocked 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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Dying Light 2 Graph

In Dying Light 2 overclocking the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition video card improved performance by 6% at 4K and the highest in-game settings. This brought performance up to nearly 60FPS, and the game was very playable at 4K in this game with the overclocked RTX 3090 FE. Turning on DLSS further improved performance by 47% bringing performance up to 86FPS and very smooth. The DLSS improvement overclocked is 7% versus the video card not overclocked. At 59FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 8% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 12% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Rainbow Six Extraction Graph

In Rainbow Six Extraction overclocking the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition video card has improved performance by 7%. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 43%. The DLSS improvement overclocked is 7% over the video card not overclocked. At 125FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 8% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 32% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Rainbow Six Extraction Graph

With TAA-2X enabled the overclocked RTX 3090 FE improves performance by 8% and that puts performance over 70FPS. At 71FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 9% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 45% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Forza Horizon 5 Graph

In Forza Horizon 5 at 4K overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 FE improves performance by 7% putting it just under the Radeon RX 6900 XT in performance here. Enabling CAS further improves performance by 14%. The CAS improvement overclocked versus not overclocked is 6%. At 80FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 5% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Far Cry 6 Graph

In Far Cry 6 at 4K overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition has improved performance by 6% and the video card now takes the lead in the game. Enabling FSR further improves performance by 31%. The FSR performance overclocked versus non overclocked is 5% faster. At 88FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 6% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 4% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Cyberpunk 2077 Graph

In Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition has improved performance by 8%, but the game is still not playable without DLSS. Turning on DLSS the game performance increases by 51% and is on the border of playable now with the overclock and DLSS. The DLSS improvement overclocked versus not overclocked is 7%. At 35.3FPS the overclocked RTX 3090 FE is 7% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 23% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The overclocked RTX 3090 FE DLSS performance is now faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT FSR performance.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Game of the Year Edition Graph

In Flight Sim at 4K overclocking the RTX 3090 barely changed performance, in fact, it was pretty much the same. What we are seeing here are clear signs of CPU bottlenecking, overclocking won’t be that advantageous in this game on this level of video card.

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.

Overclocking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition Watch Dogs Legion Graph

In Watch Dogs Legion overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition improved performance by 6%. Turning on DLSS further improves performance by 37%. The DLSS improvement overclocked versus not overclocked is 7%. At 67FPS the RTX 3090 FE is 5% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti and 6% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

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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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