Gameplay Performance
We are going to focus on the 4K gameplay performance with the Overclocked NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 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. Ray Tracing performance will be shown on a separate page. For video card comparisons we are using an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX video card and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE video card.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.0
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.0 was released on October 27, 2022, on the PC and uses the IW 9.0 gaming engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, including NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Image Scaling, AMD FSR 1.0, AMD Fidelity FX CAS, and Intel XeSS. We use the highest quality option of each. We customize every graphics setting to the maximum value for the best image quality and enable everything. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, we are running the game at 4K and maximum graphics settings. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 FE performs very well and is playable at 126FPS at 4K. This is 4% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 68% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. When we overclocked the GeForce RTX 4090 FE performance increased by 9% and now we are getting 137FPS at 4K. At the overclocked performance it is 13% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 83% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance has also increased with overclocking and brings it to 176FPS at 4K.
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 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 4K and maximum graphics settings, the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is able to give us a very playable gameplay experience at over 200FPS. At 208FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 20% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 46% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4090 FE improves performance by 8% and brings performance to 224FPS. At 224FPS the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is now 29% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 58% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance is improved by 6% and brings performance up to nearly 260FPS. This just edges out Radeon RX 7900 XTX FSR performance at 4K.
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. We use the built-in preset to set “HIGH QUALITY” which sets the highest game graphics, without Ray Tracing. We manually enable DX12 and ASYNC Compute. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Dying Light 2 we can run the game at 4K with the highest settings, sans ray tracing, on the GeForce RTX 4090 FE and get 130FPS, for a super smooth gameplay experience. At 130FPS the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is 38% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 50% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE improves performance by just 6% and brings performance up to 138FPS, so that doesn’t add a whole lot for this game. At 138FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 46% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 59% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. DLSS improves by only 3% with overclocking. With DLSS and overclocked the RTX 4090 FE is 41% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with FSR2.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.61 and utilize the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings, mainly “Ultra”. This game supports DLSS and FSR2.
Cyberpunk 2077 is very playable at 4K and “Ultra” settings on the GeForce RTX 4090 FE which can provide 85FPS. At 85FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 21% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 48% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE has improved performance by 5%, bringing it to 89FPS. At 89FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 27% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 55% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. DLSS performance improves by 4% with overclocking.
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. This game supports DLSS upscaling.
In Watch Dogs Legion we are able to play this game very smoothly at 4K and “Ultra” settings at 116FPS on the GeForce RTX 4090 FE. At 116FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 20% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 61% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4090 FE improves performance by 5% and brings it up to 122FPS. At 122FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 26% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 69% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance did not change with overclocking, however.
Discussion (3 replies)
Join Discussion →Nice read. Thank you and job well done.
As always thanks! Can't wait to get home and try your settings.
I used some less aggressive settings with my Suprim Liquid X and had similar results but Afterburner only let me increase its power target by 110%. However, my core clock is only ~75 MHz lower (2860 to 2885) than this but the Suprim hybrid cooling solution keeps it cool and quiet (using stock fan curve and it rarely goes above 50% while keeping it in the 60s or lower. Power draw for me has mostly been in the 430s with occasional spikes just over 500W and not uncommon to even see it drop below 400. So far, the only game I've tested that kept it up there was RE3 where I cranked the IQ setting to 200%. It loaded the VRAM to 18GB and the power draw pinged 499-530W. FPS dropped to 50-55 but man it looks good. I did some testing with Metro Enhanced as well and it's so nice to finally be able to crank everything and turn off DLSS. I'm planning on doing another playthrough real soon. I did see it pull upwards of 500W at times but have only barely done some real-world play testing with it.
Well, I had a little time to experiment while dinner was cooking last night. I'm pretty sure I was hitting a power wall but I was mostly able to replicate this. I only spent maybe 20 minutes of testing but got to a seemingly stable point with +185 on the core and +1200 for mem which got me to 2940-2955 w/ occasional spikes to 2970 and mem at 11400.
The Suprim X only allows a +110 (even with X1). It was fun to see the upper limits of what this card can do but I doubt I'll use these as my gaming settings. The cooling solution was still amazing but with the stock fan settings I saw, interestingly, both the temp and fan usage go to 66-67 but at that point, it started to pull down the core clock to something like 2910. When I cranked fans to 100% temps dropped to 50-55c and the core was back to maxing. I've heard that in limited power situations it's a good idea to dial back the mem clock to free up power for the GPU hence why I had it at 1200 but I might take it back a little more just to see if it can reach 2970 more easily. However, I ran about 10 benches with Metro Exodus Enhanced, and a few with CB 2077, the same settings Brent used with mostly the same results but TBP was hanging 510-520W. My other overclock settings with core at 2860-2885 and mem at 11000 used less power and the stock fan curve was more than enough to keep it quiet too so I'll probably just stick with them. I figure I'm only losing out on maybe less than 1% of an OC gain while retaining all the benefits of why I wanted the Liquid X.
BTW I ran the SOTR benchmark and it was hilarious. At 4K, Q. DLSS, and everything but post processing stuff maxed, it ranged 185-250 FPS with some spikes upwards of 300 FPS. I still remember watching this game bringing a 2080 Ti to its knees. This a game you can play w/o DLSS at well over 60 FPS on a 4090 w/ smaa x2(maybe 4-can't remember the limit here) and looks great but it's just hilarious to see such FPS at 4K with almost everything else maxed.
On the note of a power wall, I came across this chart on TPU a couple of months back when researching this, and other cards. It could be useful for those wanting to tinker with their 4090s and wondering about power variants.
Just to add, that I was able to get mem to 11700 but at that point, I started to dial it back in favor of getting the core to max out.