Gameplay Performance at 1440p with Ray Tracing
Now that we have looked at 1440p raster performance on the previous page, it is time to enable Ray Tracing at 1440p. We want to see if the Radeon RX 7900 XT can have a playable gameplay performance with Ray Tracing at 1440p without the need for FSR. For video card comparisons we are using an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition.
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 can indeed have all the Ray Tracing options enabled at “Ultra High” at 1440p. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT can allow a playable gameplay experience at 1440p and full Ray Tracing providing 79FPS average. The Radeon RX 7900 XT seems to be faster than the GeForce RTX 3080 FE with Ray Tracing but does fall under the GeForce RTX 3090 FE in Ray Tracing performance. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 27% faster, which does seem a little underperforming from generation to generation. We see the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 5% faster than the GeForce RTX 3080, but 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 3090. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 41% faster.
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.
Hrm, the Dying Light 2 performance is a bit disappointing at 1440p. Even at 1440p, with Ray Tracing at the highest settings the new Radeon RX 7900 XT doesn’t really seem to be that playable sadly. It’s actually just under GeForce RTX 3080 FE performance for Ray Tracing. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 42% faster, but it is also 3% slower than the GeForce RTX 3080 FE. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 66% faster. In order to make this game playable with Ray Tracing at 1440p on the Radeon RX 7900 XT you will have to enable FSR2 upscaling.
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 redeems the Radeon RX 7900 XT at 1440p with Ray Tracing, the game is playable at 140FPS with DXR options enabled. For the only time, this is faster than the GeForce RTX 4080, by 9%. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 23% faster and compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 it is 27% faster.
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.
Cyberpunk 2077 is similar to Dying Light 2 in that it is very intense for the Radeon RX 7900 XT. This game is not playable at 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing running at only 36FPS on the Radeon RX 7900 XT. In this game, it is well under GeForce RTX 3080 FE Ray Tracing performance. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 37% faster. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is 13% slower than the GeForce RTX 3080 FE. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 76% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT and playable in this game. In order to make the Radeon RX 7900 XT playable with Ray Tracing at 1440p you will have to use FSR upscaling. With FSR enabled we got 62.3FPS at 1440p, which was playable.
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 was playable on the Radeon RX 7900 XT at 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing. It ran over 60FPS, giving us smooth gameplay. In this game, the Radeon RX 7900 XT is on par with GeForce RTX 3090 FE performance with Ray Tracing. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT is 35% faster and compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 it is 14% faster. The GeForce RTX 4080 is 31% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XT.
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.
Metro Exodus Enhanced ran well on the Radeon RX 7900 XT at 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing. It performed over 60FPS and had smooth gameplay. We can see in this game that the Radeon RX 7900 XT was performing just a bit better than the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3090 in Ray Tracing performance. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT was 31% faster and compared to the GeForce RTX 3080 it was 19% faster.