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. For video card comparisons we are using an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 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 at 1440p with Ray Tracing overclocking the Radeon RX 7900 XT improves performance by 6% which is playable at 84FPS at 1440p with Ray Tracing. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the Radeon RX 7900 XT overclocked is 35% faster. It is still quite slower than the GeForce RTX 4080 though, by 24%.
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.
In Dying Light 2 at 1440p with maximum Ray Tracing the overclocked Radeon RX 7900 XT improves performance by a healthy 21%. This actually brings the playable performance up from 50FPS up to past 60FPS average, making the game very enjoyable at 1440p with maximum Ray Tracing. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the overclocked Radeon RX 7900 XT is 38% faster. It’s still 34% behind the RTX 4080 though.
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 at 1440p and DXR overclocking the Radeon RX 7900 XT improves performance only 2%. This is still faster than the RTX 4080 by 12%. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the overclocked RX 7900 XT is 25% 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 is quite harsh, and even with the Radeon RX 7900 XT overclocked, it still cannot pull off 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing on it. We do see a 6% increase in performance, but that doesn’t equate to much in framerate at these low framerates. You can make it worth though, with FSR2, but that is required even at 1440p to play with Ray Tracing. The performance is still 40% below the RTX 4080.
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 overclocking the Radeon RX 7900 XT improves performance by 6% and brings it to nearly 70FPS at 1440p with Ray Tracing. Compared to the Radeon RX 6900 XT the overclocked RX 7900 XT is 44% faster. Compared to the RTX 4080 it is 19% slower.
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 at 1440p overclocking the Radeon RX 7900 XT improves performance by 6% bringing it to near 70FPS at 1440p with the highest settings. It’s 22% slower than the RTX 4080.