Gameplay Performance Ray Tracing
On this page, we are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with Ray Tracing enabled on the Overclocked NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Founders Edition video card and Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE 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. The Overclocked performance for both video cards is shown in the graphs below.
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.
When running the “High Preset” for Ray Tracing in Alan Wake 2 it turns on Path Tracing, which kills performance on these video cards at 1440p, and neither is playable without upscaling. The Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 68% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE due to Path Tracing being used. The Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER with DLSS is 56% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. Only the Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER with DLSS Quality is playable with High Preset Ray Tracing.
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.
Returnal is playable on both video cards overclocked, even with Ray Tracing. The Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 13% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. The Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER with DLSS is 8% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE with FSR.
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, this game is playable on both video cards overclocked with Ray Tracing at 1440p. The Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER edges out the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE by 5%. The Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER with DLSS edges out FSR by only 2%.
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.
In Chernobylite Enhanced Edition turning on “Ultra” Ray Tracing creates a very demanding burden as it uses Ray Traced global illumination. The Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE is not playable, while the Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is. The Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER is 40% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. With DLSS, the Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER is 40% faster. Thankfully, with FSR enabled the Overclocking PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE is at playable framerates.
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.
Dying Light 2 is also demanding, and the Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is playable, but the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE is really not, without upscaling. The Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 30% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. DLSS on the Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER is 29% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE with FSR.
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.
Cyberpunk 2077 is not playable on either video card with Ultra Ray Tracing, even when they are overclocked, without upscaling. The Overclocked GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 35% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. With DLSS the Overclocked RTX 4070 SUPER is 38% faster than the Overclocked PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE. However, the PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE is playable overclocked with FSR Upscaling.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →Interesting review glad to see the cards trading blows more or less. Only standout is RT.
But... what does it say that a mid tier card is 600 bucks! OOf.
RDNA 4 will comfortably beat the 4070 super. Priced around the same as 7900 GRE hopefully. Not sure when AMD wants to launch it tho
...There'll be a '5070' of some sort coming too. The game of one upping never ends. Hopefully AMD will have their RT up to par with Intel and Nvidia at least.
That people are willing to buy them!
Willing or Have No Choice?? I think the latter..
Will RT continue to be a thing now that AI is the latest “it”?
Seems like RT really only was there for nVidia to have a marketing point over AMD and a potential Intel rivalry, and a good excuse to raise the price up. But even today - nVidias talk is mostly all about DLSS and AI - they have totally shifted gears. Sure they still mention RT because they beat the pants off everyone else with it, but it’s mostly just become a marketing bulletpoint and not the item that gets slides and slides about it
You're not forced to buy GPUs, so, 'willing' :)
Absolutely. 'AI' has almost no practical meaning for desktop users in general (until it does). Whereas we know that AMDs weak RT performance thus far has been holding back RT implementations in games, particularly due to the console effect.
DLSS is still huge, and represents a significant advantage in overall refinement as well as having broad support. I see the level of support evening out over time of course, but it's still something that Nvidia has simply developed further and anything else represents a compromise in either performance (XeSS either not running on an Intel GPU, or in having to run an Intel GPU...), or FSR just being inferior.
For AI... marketing buzzwords and SEO are going to dominate marketing, reason be darned. Local 'AI' hardware is likely to be useful in augmenting LLMs for those that use them but we're still waiting for those 'killer apps' to make a case for general consumer investment. Right now, it seems to me that these tech giants are mostly just capitalizing on fervor and not wanting to be seen as being behind in the new hotness.
I really cannot see local AI hardware today being of the same importance to gaming as RT and smart upscaling and frame generation technologies. Maybe tomorrow?
You're not forced to buy a GPU, but if you want a GPU, and you want a mid-tier card, you're forced to spend $500+ for it. Unless you settle for a much lesser powered card in the $200-$300 range..
You can always make compromises elsewhere, like your monitor and/or resolution, for the same performance on a lower end/cheaper card. But I think you can still play most games at 1440p/60 with high or near maxed settings on a $300-$400 card these days. The numbers on this review on the RT slides are completely maxed out with RT, and that doesn't make sense for most people anyways if you care about optimization where you can get 95% of the IQ with 150% of the performance if you tweak the right settings.
I thought RDNA 4 was to match the RTX4080, anyway that's not what it's going to compete with.
But if its priced right, it will force nvidia to price their cards accordingly, consumer win!!!.
Well, MS is betting big on AI on the desktop, so nvidia will surely try to grab a large chunk of that market.