Gameplay Performance Ray Tracing
On this page, we are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with Ray Tracing enabled. We are including the GeForce RTX 4070 FE to see the performance differences. We are including the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT since it is the closest competitor from AMD, though keep in mind the Radeon RX 7800 XT is cheaper, $499 MSRP, and there are add-in-partner cards, and factory overclocked cards, that close the gap in pricing. 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.
Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 was launched on the PC in October of 2023 and is based on the Northlight Engine. The game supports detailed graphics and ray tracing with path tracing support. This game defaults to DLSS or FSR but does allow Native AA resolution settings with DLSS or FSR respectively. We can utilize Super Sampling upscaling, and for our graphs, we will just call that DLSS or FSR. We utilize the graphics presets to set High quality, as well as the Ray Tracing presets to set Low or High quality. We use a manual run-through in the Initiation 5: Room 665 chapter.
In the graph above we are running Alan Wake 2 on the “LOW” Ray Tracing preset option, this is because the “High” option kills AMD performance by using Path Tracing. On Low settings, Path Tracing is not used, and so we wanted to show this performance level before the High setting so we could see where the cards all land on the Low Ray Tracing Preset in Alan Wake 2.
When “Low” Ray Tracing is used, the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT performs on par with the GeForce RTX 4070 for performance at 38FPS. We don’t typically see this, so that is impressive for a game like this, but again this is without path tracing. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE is not playable at 44FPS, however, we do need upscaling to make it smooth and playable at 73FPS. Now, you can argue that 44FPS is playable in this game, but to be honest, our opinion is more around 48-50FPS is smooth in this game, and acceptable.
The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is, however, 16% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070, with this Low Ray Tracing option, so that is the performance difference. This also means it is 16% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT as well, with Low Ray Tracing. Enabling DLSS does the trick here, which improves performance by 66% bringing it to very smooth framerates and a great experience.
Now in this graph, we have enabled the “HIGH” Ray Tracing preset, which enables Path Tracing. This kills performance on the Radeon RX 7800 XT, and it is now at 20FPS, and removes it from the equation, even with FSR upscaling. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is also not playable without upscaling here, we do need to enable DLSS to get 60FPS and smooth performance for this game. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 15% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070, and 95% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 64%.
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, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER allows a playable experience at 1440p with EPIC Ray Tracing at 87FPS and it’s very smooth. This is an 18% performance improvement over the GeForce RTX 4070 and a 30% performance improvement over the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Enabling DLSS brings performance up 39%.
Forspoken
Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. The game supports all upscaling methods 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 with Ray Tracing the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER allows a playable experience at 77FPS. This puts it at 13% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 15% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT. The Radeon RX 7800 XT matches the GeForce RTX 4070 though, on Ray Tracing performance in this game. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 35%.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Chernobylite was released on the PC in 2021, but the free Enhanced Edition update for the game was released in April 2022. The Enhanced Edition provides a visual overhaul of the game with better textures, plus introduces tessellation and ray tracing features. It features raytraced reflections, raytraced translucency, raytraced caustics, and raytraced dynamic diffuse global illumination. The game is based on Unreal Engine 4. For our Ray Tracing test, we have enabled the Ultra Ray Tracing option.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition uses Ray Traced Global Illumination and is very hard on GPUs. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the only video here at 1440p that is playable in “Ultra” mode with “Ultra” Ray Tracing at near 60FPS without upscaling. The GeForce RTX 4070 needs upscaling to be playable, but you could do it on the RTX 4070 SUPER without upscaling or enabling upscaling for another 51% increase. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 16% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 55% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT, which cannot handle the 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. 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 the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the only video card that allows above 60FPS at 1440p with High Quality Ray Tracing enabled without needing upscaling. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 22% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 50% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Enabling DLSS improves performance by 58%.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 2.0 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.
In Cyberpunk 2077 all the cards struggle with Ray Tracing at Ultra at 1440p, even the new GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER needs upsampling to be playable, without it it is not. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 14% faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 and 67% faster than the Radeon RX 7800 XT. When we enable DLSS on the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER performance increases by 76% and we now have a playable nearly 80FPS. The GeForce RTX 4070 is also playable with DLSS, but much less so. The Radeon RX 7800 XT is not playable even with FSR.