Gameplay Performance
On this page, we are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with the Overclocked NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition video card. We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported shown in the Upscaling Bar, DLSS for NVIDIA, and FSR for AMD. Ray Tracing performance will be shown on a separate page. In the comparison, we have a PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE which is a factory overclocked video card and was not out in our initial launch review of the RTX 4070 SUPER, therefore this is a new and fresh comparison, with price comparable video cards in May of 2024.
Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West was released to the PC on March 21st, 2024, and uses the Decima game engine. The game supports the full suite of Upscaling technologies, including DLSS, FSR, and XeSS. It also supports DLAA and DLSS 3 Frame Generation. For testing, we use the Preset of “Very High” and then manually enable the highest 16X Anisotropic filtering, this provides the highest possible graphics settings for testing. We use a manual run-through about two hours into the game, in the open world traveling from point to point, with machines along the way, through a desert scene, forest, and village.
In Horizon Forbidden West the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is very playable at 1440p and maximum settings at 89FPS, this also matches the Radeon RX 7900 GRE performance. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER increases performance by 7% and brings performance above 90FPS to the mid-90s in framerate. At this performance level, the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is also 7% faster than the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS Upscaling can also improve performance, and with DLSS Quality at 1440p and Overclocked it can hit near 120FPS. If you want to maintain 120FPS, dropping the DLSS quality level to Balanced will do just that when overclocked.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was released in December of 2023 and is based on an updated Snowdrop engine. This engine supports real-time ray tracing, and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is unique in that it supports hardware ray tracing turned on by default, with no options to disable it. If a video card doesn’t support ray tracing, it falls back to a software ray tracing mode. With ray tracing baked in, all the results shown reflect the use of ray-traced global illumination, ray-traced reflections, and ray-traced shadows, these are always on. We utilize the graphics quality preset option of “Ultra.” We use the built-in benchmark.
In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is playable at 1440p at over 60FPS, and provides a smoother experience than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 10% faster than the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE. When we overclock the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER performance increases by 7% and we can not hit just above 70FPS in this game. The overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 18% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS Upscaling further improves performance and pushes the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER to above 100FPS, and when overclocked right up to 110FPS at 1440p with the highest quality DLSS.
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 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 Alan Wake 2 the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is very playable at 1440p with the highest in-game settings. However, in this game, it is the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE that edges out performance over the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER by 4%. This changes when we overclock the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, it receives a 5% performance improvement and now matches performance with the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS also improves performance by allowing well above 100FPS at 1440p. It seems FSR is a bit faster overall, but DLSS has better image quality at 1440p.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Mirage was released in October of 2023 and is based on the Ubisoft Anvil game engine. We are using the “Ultra High” graphics quality preset, and all adaptive framerate measures are disabled. We use the built-in benchmark.
Assassins’s Creed Mirage is very playable on the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER at 128FPS. It appears to be 6% faster than the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE in this game. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER pushes performance up 6% and it is now 12% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS upscaling provides the most performance uplift, and at 166FPS when overclocked gameplay is super smooth and responsive.
Starfield
Starfield was released on the PC in September of 2023 and is based on the Creation Engine 2. We are using the highest Ultra settings in the game for all testing, and upscaling is disabled for standard testing, with no dynamic resolution. We use a manual run-through in the New Atlantis area encompassing all areas.
Starfield is very playable on the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER at 74FPS average. However, like Alan Wake 2, Starfield actually runs about 4% faster on the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE. That is until we overclock the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER where performance improves by 7%. With the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER overclocked, it is now just edging out Radeon RX 7900 GRE performance. DLSS upscaling also seems to provide a higher advantage here in performance, allowing the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER to achieve 90FPS at 1440p. FSR can also achieve this level, but you will have to lower the render resolution.
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 unlocked framerate, and everything is enabled except ray tracing, we have screen-space reflections on. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Returnal the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is very playable at over 100FPS, but this is another game where the Radeon RX 7900 GRE outperforms it this time by 10%. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER improves performance by 5%, and brings it to 114FPS, which narrows the gap with the Radeon RX 7900 GRE, but the 7900 GRE is still 5% faster. We also see FSR take a more commanding lead in performance, compared to DLSS at the same quality settings.
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 use the built-in benchmark.
In Forspoken the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER allows a very playable experience at 96FPS, which edges out the Radeon RX 7900 GRE by a small 2%. When we overclock the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER performance improves by 5% and now it is 7% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS Upscaling brings performance up to 120FPS on the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER.
Chernobylite Enhanced Edition
Chernobylite, based on Unreal Engine 4, was released on the PC in 2021, but the 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. It supports upscaling, and we use the highest quality. We use the built-in benchmark.
In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER has a very big advantage compared to the Radeon RX 7900 GRE factory overclocked video card. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 20% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. Overclocking the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER improves performance by 6% and when overclocked it is now 28% faster than the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS Upscaling brings us to incredible framerates north of 200FPS.
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 the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is very playable above 100FPS with the highest settings. However, we do see the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE providing a performance advantage over the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER by 5%. When we overclock the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER performance improves by 6%. This puts the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER on par with the Radeon RX 7900 GRE in performance. DLSS Upscaling with overclocking brings performance up to 167FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 2.0 and utilize the built-in benchmark. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings to “Ultra”. We utilize the highest quality upscaling.
In Cyberpunk 2077 the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is more than playable at 90FPS. Overclocking doesn’t seem to yield a very large advantage in this game, just 3%, until we use DLSS upscaling. With DLSS Upscaling the advantage from overclocking is 4%. However, the factory overclocked Radeon RX 7900 GRE is actually faster than the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER by 12%.