Gameplay Performance
We are going to focus on a 4K gameplay performance with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 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 3090 Founders Edition, 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 we are playing at 4K with the highest in-game settings, minus Ray Tracing. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition video card is the only one to provide 60FPS gameplay at 4K and the highest game settings, which is pretty amazing. The game is very playable without DLSS, though turning on DLSS certainly boosts performance a lot, almost at 90FPS which is amazing. DLSS improves performances by 46%.
The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE at 61FPS is 11% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 FE, so that tells you how much of a boost over the RTX 3090 you’ll get in performance in this game. The DLSS performance is 10% faster on the RTX 3090 Ti FE. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FE the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 12% faster. Finally, the RTX 3090 Ti FE is 16% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT, which is pretty significant. Even with FSR on the Radeon RX 6900 XT, which amazingly brings it up to the same performance as DLSS on the other cards, still can’t touch the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE DLSS performance.
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 we are playing the game at 4K with the highest settings plus the HD Textures. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is very playable at 4K providing the highest performance among these video cards at an amazing 131FPS average with TAA. Turning on DLSS further improves performance by 41% to a whopping 185FPS. At 131FPS the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 12% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 FE, and the DLSS performance is 11% faster. Compared to the RTX 3080 Ti FE the RTX 3090 Ti FE is 13% faster. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the RTX 3090 Ti FE is 38% faster, quite a big difference in this game.
Turning on TAA-2X AA setting is a very demanding option in this game at 4K. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE handles it well and provides for us over 70FPS at 4K. That’s 12% faster than the RTX 3090 FE and 14% faster than the RTX 3080 Ti FE and 51% 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.
In Forza Horizon 5 at 4K and maximum game settings with FXAA enabled the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT has a strong showing with the new driver. It’s at the top of performance in this game, at least it was until the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE came around. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE matches the Radeon RX 6900 XT in performance in this game at 4K with both providing 81FPS of playable gameplay performance. Enabling CAS further improves performance on both, but more so on the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Still, CAS will bring performance up to over 90FPS on both.
If we compare the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE at 81FPS to the GeForce RTX 3090 FE we find it is 8% faster and compared to the RTX 3080 Ti FE it is 7% faster.
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, we are playing at 4K with the highest settings, plus HD Textures, but minus Ray Tracing. The game is very playable on the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE at 90FPS, beating all of the video cards here. FSR is also something we can utilize in this game and that helps bring performance up 30% to 117FPS on the RTX 3090 Ti FE at 4K, pretty amazing performance.
Compared to the other video cards the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 8% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 FE and RTX 3080 Ti FE. It’s 6% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The Radeon RX 6900 XT does very well in this game with the new driver and was the performance leader prior to the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE.
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.
In Cyberpunk 2077, at 4K and “Ultra” settings, this game is simply not playable without DLSS. Even the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition can only provide 37FPS average, which is faster than the other cards, but not fast enough to make the game playable at 4K and “Ultra” settings. By turning on DLSS though, the game does become playable on the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE, and only the RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS improves performance by 50% and brings it to 56FPS average, which is playable in this game. That is however what it takes to make this game playable at 4K and Ultra settings, an RTX 3090 Ti, and DLSS.
At 37FPS the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 15% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 FE. It’s 30% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
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 Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 believe it or not we are seeing a CPU bottleneck even at 4K with these very fast video cards. These cards are fast enough to make the Ryzen 7 5800X a bottleneck even at 4K. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is practically the same performance as the RTX 3090 FE and RTX 3080 Ti FE. The only card that lags behind more noticeably is the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 11% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
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 we are playing at 4K and “Ultra” settings, minus Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is very playable in this game at 4K providing a 70FPS average. What’s more, we can enable DLSS at 4K and receive a large boost of 33% more performance and get above 90FPS at 4K. At 70FPS the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE is 11% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 FE and Radeon RX 6900 XT.
Discussion (8 replies)
Join Discussion →It's actually more of an improvement than I expected, but not enough to make me buy one over an existing RTX 3090. Furthermore, I think that while it's a great card, I'm not sure it makes sense to buy at this late stage of Ampere's life cycle. Aren't we supposed to see its successor late this year?
Thanks @Brent_Justice for the great review.
I couldn't rightly recommend one of these to anyone unless they had the money laying around and really wanted it now, especially since the next-gen should be out sometime in the next 6 months. Anyone with a 3080 Ti or better can potentially OC their cards for almost the same performance.
However, I was able to use the EVGA step-up program to upgrade from a 3090 to an FTW3 Ultra 3090 Ti. I figured in for a penny, in for a pound, and went ahead and did it. I've been really happy with it. For the 1st time since I've gotten into 4K gaming (~ 4-6 years ago), I can just leave everything at stock settings. This card replaced a Suprim X 3090 that's now in my other rig and performs the same at stock vs. when I was overclocking that card. It's been so long since I've been able to game without all my case fans cranked that I'd forgotten how nice it can be. The only caveat, as Brent said repeatedly, is that DLSS is still needed if cranking ray tracing settings to the max in demanding games and wanting to go over 60 FPS. I'm o.k. with that since the games I play have DLSS 2.0 and the quality setting looks great to me. I've tinkered with overclocking it but the gains are minimal as it's fairly optimized right out of the box and I see it boost to 1925 MHz-2010 MHz while not exceeding 70c. For me, the fans rarely go more than 82% and are even able to drop into the 50s-60s now and then-same for temps. I spent a lot of time gaming on it last week and can confirm. ;)
For me, it's been like upgrading from a tricked-out V6 to a well-built midsize V8, without the extra stuff to do the same amount of work.
Same here. Card runs much cooler than my non overclocked EVGA 3080 Ti I stepped up from as well.
Agreed. I was only expecting like 2-5% at most.
This is certainly the greatest card of this generation. Only problem is, this generation is almost over. If you buy one of these now, you are going to have 40xx cards on the shelves in the not too distant future that perform better for less money.
That's why I generally buy at the beginning of a new product cycle when new architectures are released.
Same.
It's also the hardest time to buy :p
That remains to be seen about the cost. I have no regrets stepping up to my current card, but I have a feeling there is going to be the same issue with inventory and price of the new cards as their was with the 3000 series cards when they were launched.
Agreed @Niner51 . If it wasn't for the step-up I wouldn't have tried to even get the 3090 Ti I got but now but I'm already thinking about how my next card is likely to be an EVGA 4090 of some sort with plans to upgrade it down the road via the same path again. For now, though, I'm happy I can wait it out and let the market settle. This will be the 1st new GPU launch in years that I won't be scrambling to get something at around launch.
It'll be nice to sit back and just watch how things develop, especially since NV has changed its rollout strategies considerably since Maxwell. I remember how I was shocked how the 2080 Ti came out relatively early during Pascal and they never really released a more powerful consumer card for that gen and even, in the end, there was a great deal of speculation about what coming next after the 2080 Super came out. Ampere, in terms of release progression, was a bit more normal but who knows what NV is really planning for the next.
From pandemic to supply chain to the battle of fab dominance, and competition, there's a lot in play that can affect how the next-gen will be rolled out. Plus we could also see some kind of unexpected random surprise with the next round of consoles too since news of them should start to ramp up about the 2nd year of the 40 series cards. AMD has been riding pretty high with MS and Sony while NV has partnered with Nintendo but things do change in those markets as well.