NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked

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Ray Tracing Performance

We are going to focus on Ray Tracing 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. For video card comparisons we are using an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Founders Edition 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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked F1 2022 Ray Tracing

In F1 2022 we are running at 4K and have turned on all the Ray Tracing options at “Ultra High” which really pushes the game hard. The GeForce RTX 4090 FE is able to provide a very good and smooth gameplay experience at this level at 81FPS. At 81FPS the RTX 4090 FE is a large 72% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 62% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. With Ray Tracing, Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE improves performance by 9%, so the uplift is pretty decent with Ray Tracing, bringing it up to 88FPS. At 88FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 87% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 76% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance has also improved very well with overclocking, by 7%, bringing performance to 140FPS. The DLSS performance is 40% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with FSR.

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 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. We use the built-in benchmark.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked Dying Light 2 Ray Tracing

In Dying Light 2 we have enabled the highest quality Ray Tracing at 4K, and only the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is able to provide a playable gameplay experience at 68FPS. At 68FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 90% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 69% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE raises performance by 7% bringing it up to 73FPS. At 73FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 102% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 80% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance improves by 7% and brings performance up to 120FPS in this game at 4K with Ray Tracing.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.61 and use the built-in benchmark. 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 FSR2.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing

In Cyberpunk 2077 we have enabled “Ultra” Ray Tracing at 4K, and even the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is not able to provide a playable gameplay experience without upscaling. It does require DLSS upscaling in order to be playable. At 44FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 116% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 72% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE improves performance by 7%, but that is still not playable at 47FPS. At 47FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 132% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 84% faster than the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking with DLSS helps here though, DLSS improves by 8% and performance is around 84FPS and very playable with 4K and Ray Tracing.

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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked Watch Dogs Legion Ray Tracing

In Watch Dogs Legion we are running the GeForce RTX 4090 FE at 4K and “Ultra” Ray Tracing and the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is barely able to provide a playable gameplay experience at 64FPS. It is playable for sure, and it’s smooth, but it’s just over the line of playability. At 64FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 64% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and GeForce RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking helps smooth the game out even more with Ray Tracing by improving performance by 6% up to 68FPS. At 68FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 74% faster than the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 3090 Ti FE. Enabling DLSS brings performance to 100FPS, and we get only a slight advantage with overclocking.

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.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition Overclocked Metro Exodus Enhanced Ray Tracing

In Metro Exodus Enhanced we are running 4K and maximum Ray Tracing settings, the GeForce RTX 4090 FE is playable at 73FPS. At 73FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 74% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RTX 3090 Ti FE. Overclocking the RTX 4090 FE improves performance by 7% up to 78FPS. At 78FPS the RTX 4090 FE is 85% faster than the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 3090 Ti FE. DLSS performance is improved with overclocking, by 4%.

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Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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