Gameplay Performance at 4K with Ray Tracing
On this page we are going to focus on the 4K gameplay performance with Ray Tracing enabled on the Radeon RX 7900 XT video card. We will include FSR and DLSS 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, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition.
We are expecting this round of testing to be very difficult for the Radeon RX 7900 XT since this is at 4K resolution, we already saw what the Radeon RX 7900 XTX could do at 4K with Ray Tracing, and it wasn’t that great. However, don’t fret, we are going to test Ray Tracing at a lower 1440p resolution on the following pages.
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 running at 4K resolution, maximum game settings and the highest level of Ray Tracing, the Radeon RX 7900 XT is not playable and provides around 41FPS of performance without upscaling. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT, which is also not playable, the Radeon RX 7900 XT provides a 37% performance uplift, which seems a bit small for Ray Tracing improvement generation-to-generation. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 FE the Radeon RX 7900 XT is only 11% faster. It seems that the Ray Tracing performance is about on par with the GeForce RTX 3090 FE. The GeForce RTX 4080 is playable without upscaling at 57FPS and is 39% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT with Ray Tracing.
The saving grace for the Radeon RX 7900 XT is FSR support in this game, which will also be getting FSR 2.2 support in January 2023. With FSR the Radeon RX 7900 XT performance improves by a large 117% bringing it to 90FPS and now the game is very smooth and playable with Ray Tracing. At 89FPS with FSR the Radeon RX 7900 XT is now on the level of the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti with DLSS, with Ray Tracing enabled. The RTX 4080 is 11% faster with upscaling.
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 FSR2. 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 game’s 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.
Dying Light 2 is very rough on the Radeon RX 7900 XT, especially so when you enable Ray Tracing at 4K. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is not playable at 23.6FPS. This is 40% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT, but nowhere near enough to make the game playable. In fact, here the GeForce RTX 3080 FE outperforms the Radeon RX 7900 XT by 7% with Ray Tracing. Therefore the Radeon RX 7900 XT is even slower than the GeForce RTX 3080 when it comes to Ray Tracing in this game. It should be noted though that even the GeForce RTX 4080 is not playable at 4K with Ray Tracing, producing only 40FPS. It’s still 70% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT though.
Upscaling is needed in this game to make it playable at 4K with Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 4080 is playable with DLSS at 72FPS, and all the way down to the GeForce RTX 3090 and 3080 Ti with DLSS as well. However, the GeForce RTX 3080 FE and Radeon RX 7900 XT are still not even playable with DLSS or FSR2. The Radeon RX 7900 XT gains a large 85% more performance with FSR2, but that only brings it up to 43FPS and the game is really not playable. Unfortunately, with the Radeon RX 7900 XT, your only options are to either play at 4K without Ray Tracing or lower the game to 1440p and enable FSR2 if you want Ray Tracing.
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.
Far Cry 6 runs surprisingly well with Ray Tracing enabled, even at 4K. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is very playable at 4K with Ray Tracing turned on giving is around 87FPS. Therefore the game is playable and smooth. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 26% faster. This puts the Radeon RX 7900 XT a little bit faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti by 6%. The GeForce RTX 4080 isn’t too far off either, it’s only 8% faster. The GeForce RTX 3080 FE is at 17FPS because of a VRAM capacity issue, it is running into VRAM bottlenecks, and therefore hits this issue. You can see that when FSR is enabled the issue goes away, and the GeForce RTX 3080 FE is now closer to the Radeon RX 6900 XT with FSR. The Radeon RX 7900 XT gains 37% more performance with FSR taking it to 119FPS. At this performance level, it is on par with the GeForce RTX 4080 with FSR as well.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 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”, “Ray Tracing: Medium” or “Ray Tracing: Ultra” as indicated. This game supports DLSS and FSR.
Ah, Cyberpunk 2077, just like Dying Light 2 we knew this game would be demanding at 4K with “Ultra” Ray Tracing. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is not playable at 17FPS, but then neither is the GeForce RTX 4080 at 30FPS. This game isn’t even playable with DLSS or FSR, except for the GeForce RTX 4080. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 43% faster, but that doesn’t mean anything when you are starting at 12-17FPS. Performance seems to align with the GeForce RTX 3080 FE here. FSR adds a huge 91% more performance, but that only brings us up to 33FPS. The only way to make this game playable is to play without Ray Tracing at 4K, or lower to 1440p and turn on FSR.
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.
Watch Dogs Legion is another game that just isn’t playable at 4K and Ray Tracing on the Radeon RX 7900 XT, at around 33FPS. Then again, neither is the GeForce RTX 4080 but it does have DLSS in this game to make up that difference. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is 38% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT and 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 3080 FE. It seems to be in between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti in Ray Tracing performance here. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 39% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT. You will need to use DLSS to make the RTX 4080 playable, but that brings it up to 76FPS and the game is very playable. In order to make the Radeon RX 7900 XT playable you will have to play without Ray Tracing at 4K, or lower to 1440p.
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 the Radeon RX 7900 XT is also not playable at 4K and Ultra Ray Tracing at just 36FPS. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is 33% faster than the Radeon RX 6900 XT and seems to be just shy of the GeForce RTX 3090 for Ray Tracing performance. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 45% faster, and with DLSS jumps to nearly 80FPS at 4K.