Ray Tracing Performance
We are going to focus on Ray Tracing at the 1440p gameplay performance with the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE 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 AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT video card and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE video card and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 FE video card.
F1 2022
F1 2022 was released on June 28th, 2022 on the PC and uses Codemasters Ego engine. The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, AMD FidelityFX, and FSR. We are going to run the game with the highest quality settings of “Ultra High” and TAA+FidelityFX. We will enable all Ray Tracing options in the game to “On.” We will enable DLSS and FSR as needed at the Quality setting for both. We will utilize the built-in benchmark in the Imola track, in dry conditions with a far chasing cam.
In F1 2022 we are running at 1440p, at the highest in-game settings, plus all Ray Tracing options turned on. Turning on all Ray Tracing in this game definitely takes a toll on performance, but not as bad as Dying Light 2 and Cyberpunk. This game is very playable at these settings on all the video cards shown here, at 1440p. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 8% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 8% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE is outperformed by the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 is 27% faster than it and the RTX 3090 Ti is 45% faster. This shows the Ray Tracing performance advantage GeForce RTX has at the moment.
DLSS and FSR greatly improve performance on all video cards. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE gets a 100% performance boost enabling FSR. This is 9% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s FSR performance. Interestingly, the OVERCLOCKED SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE with FSR actually beats everything in performance. We seem to get a greater boost enabling FSR on the AMD GPUs than we do enable DLSS on the NVIDIA GPUs, in this game. The AMD GPUs receive a large boost, and DLSS’s increase is a bit smaller.
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 we are running at 1440p, at the highest in-game settings, plus all Ray Tracing options turned on at High Quality. Turning on all Ray Tracing in this game definitely takes a toll on performance. This game is not playable on the AMD Radeon video cards at 1440p with the highest Ray Tracing without FSR. However, the two GeForce RTX cards are, and DLSS helps them even more. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 9% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 7% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE is outperformed by the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 is 48% faster than it and the RTX 3090 Ti is 67% faster. This shows the Ray Tracing performance advantage GeForce RTX has at the moment.
DLSS and FSR greatly improve performance on all video cards. FSR is needed to make the new Radeon RX 6950 XT playable. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE gets a 46% performance boost enabling FSR. This is 7% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s FSR performance.
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 Ray Tracing via two DXR settings, one for Reflections and the other for Shadows, we turn on both for testing. This game supports FSR upscaling.
In Far Cry 6 this game performed so well with Ray Tracing that we found we could keep it at 4K resolution and the game was playable on all video cards still. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 9% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 8% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE actually outperforms the the RTX 3090 by 7%. The RTX 3090 and RX 6950 XT are at very similar performance. The overclocked RX 6950 XT is actually the fastest card on this graph.
FSR greatly improve performance on all video cards. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE gets a 30% performance boost enabling FSR. This is 5% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s FSR performance. The overclocked RX 6950 XT is the fastest of all at 102FPS.
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 we are running at 1440p, at the highest in-game settings, plus Ultra Ray Tracing. This game is not playable even at 1440p with Ultra Ray Tracing on the two AMD Radeon video cards, even with FSR enabled. In fact, the GeForce RTX cards aren’t playable either until we enable DLSS. It takes DLSS to make them playable at these settings. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 8% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 10% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE is outperformed by the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 is 52% faster than it and the RTX 3090 Ti is 71% faster.
DLSS and FSR improve performance on all video cards. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE gets a 49% performance boost enabling FSR. This is 7% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s FSR performance.
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 we are running at 1440p, at the highest in-game settings, plus Ultra Ray Tracing. This game is playable on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, and the two GeForce RTX video cards, but the RX 6900 XT struggles the most for smooth gameplay. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 6% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 8% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE is outperformed by the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 is 18% faster than it and the RTX 3090 Ti is 31% faster.
DLSS greatly improves performance on the GeForce RTX video cards. The RTX 3090 gets a 37% performance boost and the RTX 3090 Ti gets a 31% performance boost.
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.
In Metro Exodus Enhanced we are running at 1440p, at the highest in-game settings, plus all Ray Tracing options turned on to Extreme. This game is playable on the Radeon RX 6950 XT and up, especially overclocked. The new SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 6950 XT PURE video card is 7% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. Overclocking adds 8% more performance. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 6950 XT PURE is outperformed by the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti. The RTX 3090 is 14% faster than it and the RTX 3090 Ti is 29% faster.
DLSS greatly improves performance on the GeForce RTX video cards. The RTX 3090 gets a 34% performance boost and the RTX 3090 Ti gets a 30% performance boost.