Gameplay Performance – RTX 4070 1440p Ray Tracing
We are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with the GeForce RTX 4070 FE video card. On this page, we will focus on Ray Tracing performance. 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 a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti FE, GeForce RTX 3070, and AMD Radeon RX 6800. Our goal with our comparisons today is to look at the GeForce RTX 4070 from the perspective of upgrading from the previous generation, at the same MSRP pricing. Our thought process is that if you bought a video card at this same price point in the last generation, what would you now be looking at in this same price point now and what would the upgrade look like?
Returnal
Returnal was launched on the PC in February of 2023 and is based on Unreal Engine 4. The game supports real-time ray tracing effects, particle systems, and volumetric rendering. We utilize the graphics preset to set EPIC graphics settings with an unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled. For ray tracing tests we have enabled Ray Traced Shadows and Reflections at Epic settings. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Returnal we have turned on Ray Traced Shadows and Reflections on EPIC settings at 1440p. The new GeForce RTX 4070 FE is able to provide a very smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience at 79FPS, well above 60 without needing to use upscaling. Compared to the Radeon RX 6800 the RTX 4070 is 52% faster. Compared to the GeForce RTX 3070 the RTX 4070 is 30% faster, and compared to the RTX 3070 Ti the RTX 4070 is 22% faster at the same price, gen-to-gen. We can also enable DLSS and performance shoots past 100FPS for a 38% performance improvement.
Forspoken
Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. The game supports all upscaling methods, including NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS, and Ray Tracing. We are going to customize the settings and enable the highest graphics settings, including Ultra High Texture Memory. We are going to enable both Ray Tracing options, Shadows, and Ambient Occlusion. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Forspoken we have enabled Ray Traced Shadows and Ambient Occlusion at 1440p. Once again the GeForce RTX 4070 really does well with Ray Tracing at 1440p here, allowing 70FPS for a smooth and playable gameplay experience. Flipping things around, the Radeon RX 6800 is actually performing better than the GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti, which was not the norm for other games in our testing. It seems this game is more well-optimized for Ray Tracing. The GeForce RTX 4070 is an amazing 59% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 46% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. For whatever reason, the new RTX 4070 does wonders for this game versus the previous generation. Enabling DLSS performance improves 39% to 97FPS at 1440p.
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 have enabled the “Ultra High” Ray Tracing options, all of them. This really puts a huge burden on the game, it has four separate Ray Tracing options. That said, the GeForce RTX 4070 does well without the need for upscaling, it can play at 72FPS at 1440p. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 44% faster than the Radeon RX 6800 and 29% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 20% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti. We also tested DLSS and DLSS 3 Frame Generation in this game, to see what added performance we could get. Enabling DLSS improved performance 67%, which is already a nice uplift and takes us to 120FPS. However, we can go further, by enabling DLSS 3 Frame Generation we gain another 32% of performance on top of that giving us nearly 160FPS at 1440p with maximum Ray Tracing in this game.
Dying Light 2
Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine. We have updated the game to patch 1.90. 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. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Dying Light 2 we are running the game at the “High Quality” Ray Tracing, which really puts a burden on all video cards. In fact, the Radeon RX 6800 is not playable at 35FPS, and neither is the RTX 3070 and RTX 3070 Ti, without upscaling. Only the GeForce RTX 4070 is able to play this game at an acceptable framerate at 54FPS, but that isn’t quite 60. It seems we still need upscaling, to hit more enjoyable framerates for today. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 26% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 and 17% faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 55% and we get over 80FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 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.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the other game that really puts the hurt on enabling “Ultra” Ray Tracing, even at 1440p. Unfortunately, this is the first time the GeForce RTX 4070 is not able to be playable with Ray Tracing at 1440p without upscaling. The GeForce RTX 4070 is 35% faster than the RTX 3070 and 25% faster than the RTX 3070 Ti.
In this game, we can also enable DLSS 3 Frame Generation and see how much faster it can get. First, when we enable DLSS we get a bit 75% performance boost and the game is very playable at 70FPS. We don’t need frame generation, but if we do enable it performance shoots up another 73% and we can now play at 120FPS at 1440p with “Ultra” Ray Tracing.
Just for giggles we wanted to try out “Psycho” Ray Tracing mode in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p. Of course, the game is unplayable without Ray Tracing at 35FPS. However, using DLSS we gain 81% and the game is playable over 60FPS just fine. We can also enable DLSS 3 Frame Generation and performance goes up another 79% way up to 114FPS.