Ray Tracing Performance
We are going to focus on Ray Tracing 1440p gameplay performance with the overclocked 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. For video card comparisons we are using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition video card and 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. This game supports Ray Tracing environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections. We utilize the built-in preset option to set “HIGH QUALITY RAYTRACING” which enables the games highest graphics settings plus the environmental effects explained above at the highest values. The game is run in DX12 Ultimate mode with ASYNC Compute turned on. 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 1440p with the highest form of Ray Tracing enabled the overclocked GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition is very playable in this game over 60FPS. You don’t need DLSS to make it playable at 1440p with the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE, though if you want to enable DLSS then you will get framerates at near 100FPS with Ray Tracing. At 64FPS the overclocked GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE has improved its performance by 6% with the overclock. Compared to the RTX 3090 FE it is 18% faster. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT it is 90% faster.
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. We use the Ray Tracing Graphics Preset of either: “Ray Tracing: Low”, or “Ray Tracing: Medium” or “Ray Tracing: Ultra” as indicated. This game supports DLSS and FSR.
In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with the highest level of Ray Tracing overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has improved performance by 7%. At this performance level, the game is playable on the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE. Compared to the RTX 3090 FE it is 20% faster and compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT it is 96% faster. DLSS also helps performance a lot, bringing it up to 80FPS on the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE.
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. We utilize the “Ultra” preset quality option for Ray Tracing. This game supports DLSS upscaling.
In Watch Dogs Legion at 1440p with the highest level of Ray Tracing the overclocked GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition improves performance with overclocking by 6%. The game is very playable at 1440p with the highest level of Ray Tracing on the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE video card. Compared to the RTX 3090 FE it is 18% faster and compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT it is 48% faster. Enabling DLSS also helps improve performance quite a bit up to 90FPS on the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE.
Metro Exodus Enhanced
Metro Exodus Enhanced is being run with Shading Quality at “Extreme” and Ray Tracing at “Ultra.” This is a demanding game, that heavily focuses on Ray Tracing utilization, including Global Illumination. We are utilizing the built-in benchmark.
Overclocking the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE in Metro Exodus Enhanced at 1440p improves performance by 6%. This game is very playable on the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE at 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing enabled. Compared to the RTX 3090 FE it is 19% faster and compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT it is 46% faster. DLSS also improves performance and brings the overclocked RTX 3090 Ti FE up to over 90FPS.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →Thanks, @Brent_Justice for another great review.
I tried overclocking my EVGA FTW3 Ultra 3090 Ti but with much more modest settings that did not net as impressive results as your tests. However, I plan to use, as I've done many times over the years, your review as a guideline just to see what it can do. I had tinkered with increasing the mem speed but with detrimental performance. I actually saw lower max frames in Metro and CB 2077. Not by a whole lot, perhaps 2-5 FPS but the averages were close to the same. I'll tinker a bit more with the mem but will focus more on the boost.
Precision X1 will let me raise the power limit to 107% for that card. I previously did that but only added a meager 25-40 MHz to the boost clock which saw it top around 2010-2040 MHz and I had set the fans to 100% which kept it in the mid-high 60s. I am now curious to see what could happen with ~140 added there. I'm only going to do it just to see what the ceiling really is for the card as at stock it's already doing most of what I need and with the fans on the stock settings, the card fairly quiet, about the same volume as the rest of the fans in the case, and never lets the card above 72c.
Really there is no longer point to overclocking. You get meager results vs power/heat increase. The days of even 20% OC are long gone. You are lucky if you get anywhere near 10%OC
You are better off doing UNDERCLOCKING. You loose very little performance but save quite a bit of power and heat. Might want to check that out.
Too true. These 3090 Ti s are a prime example of that. My previous OC attempts gained more heat, noise, and TDP than performance but it's still nice to see where the ceiling is.
Wait, I read that as 'undervolting' @Stoly, sorry!
But undervolting and overclocking at the same time would be the goal, if there's any allowance left for tuning efficiency.
Well, Thanks @Brent_Justice!
Those settings worked. We all know there's always an element of luck in the bin and I've had more than my share of cards where I was not able to reproduce what I've seen in other reviews using the same settings but these worked. I mostly got the same results. I saw the boost peak at 2140 MHz but it mostly held between 2115 and 2130 MHz with 11,502 on the memory. I get the feeling I might be able to squeeze a little more but I'm not going to worry about it right now. I attached some screenshots. I only tested in Metro Exodus.
The bench results are stock and then the overclock settings. The game screenshots look washed out because I had HDR on and even though it looks fantastic on the C2, afterburner cannot properly capture it. I like Precision X1 for its better tuning options for the card but prefer AB for its OSD.
A few more. Just whipping these out before bed but all are, including the ones above, at 3840x2160/HDR/120 Hz/G-Sync. These are all with the OC settings Brent used for the review. Beyond that it's a lot less scientific as graphical settings are mostly all textures maxed, RT is either maxed or close to it and DLSS is always Quality (except CB 2077-performance). HZ Zero Dawn doesn't have RT but does have DLSS plus it's one of the few games besides Crysis Remastered that can give the CPU a little workout even at 4K. I always turn off any blur, chromatic, lens flare, DOF, type settings. Bottom line is that I was able to replicate the GPU overclock flawlessly with his settings. I saw sustained peaks of 2145 MHz while it only dipped to 2115-2130 MHz during various moments. Again I do apologize for them looking washed out but it's because AB cannot properly capture HDR images.
Off topic... I notice you have a comparison between the RTX 3070 vs 3080 and 3080 vs 3080Ti.
Could you do RTX 3070Ti vs RTX 3080? I'd like to know if its worth the extra dough.
It's on the list! Going in order of the projected popularity based on search volumes.
Gr8 tnx. I'm thinking at this point I should maybe wait for the 4000 series, but I don't think I could get one anyway.