Gameplay Performance 1440p
On this page, we are going to focus on the 1440p gameplay performance with the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER FE and GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER FE. We will include DLSS shown in the Upscaling Bar. Ray Tracing performance will be shown on the next page.
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 2070 SUPER just could not keep up at 1440p with any modicum of playable performance. In fact, we consistently encountered chugging and hitching and long pauses as it loaded in assets with the smaller 8GB of VRAM, even with DLSS enabled. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 112% faster and allows a more than playable experience in the upper 80s without upscaling. DLSS upscaling on the 2070 SUPER allowed a 24% performance increase, whereas on the 4070 SUPER DLSS upscaling allowed a 26% uplift in performance.
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 2070 SUPER was not playable at 1440p, even with DLSS upscaling. In fact, even 1080p was questionable, you would need 1080p with upscaling, as this game does use Ray Tracing by default. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 131% faster, and you can play this game at 1440p, though you’d probably still want DLSS upscaling on it as well, which boosts framerates to 100FPS. DLSS upscaling improves performance 52% on the 2070 SUPER, and 57% on the 4070 SUPER.
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 2070 SUPER is not playable at 1440p at the highest game settings, you will need, however with DLSS upscaling it can be playable. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 101% faster, and very playable without needing upscaling. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 2070 SUPER by 49%, and on the 4070 SUPER DLSS upscaling improves performance by 50%.
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 doesn’t run too bad on the RTX 2070 SUPER at 1440p, but the minimums we saw in the benchmark are below what one would consider smooth gameplay. For this game, DLSS upscaling does help the RTX 2070 SUPER to be playable at 1440p. The RTX 4070 SUPER is 103% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER, and very playable without needing upscaling. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the RTX 2070 SUPER by 22% and on the RTX 4070 SUPER it improves performance by 22%.
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.
In Starfield the RTX 2070 SUPER is very much not playable, even with quality DLSS mode. Performance was very choppy, and clearly, we were running into VRAM limits as well as the game chugged along. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 129% faster and is playable without DLSS upscaling. DLSS upscaling improved performance on the RTX 2070 SUPER by 24% and on the RTX 4070 SUPER it improved it by 23%, but higher framerates in general.
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 2070 SUPER does struggle at 1440p, but with DLSS upscaling it is actually quite playable at 1440p. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 88% faster than the 2070 SUPER and playable without upscaling. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 2070 SUPER by 29% and DLSS upscaling on the RTX 4070 SUPER improves performance by 23%.
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.
Forspoken is very sensitive to VRAM capacities, and we really do see the RTX 2070 SUPER struggle in this game, and it is simply not playable, even with DLSS, at 1440p. The game chugs, lags, and can be choppy on the RTX 2070 SUPER. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 134% faster, and very playable at very high framerates without upscaling. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 2070 SUPER by 32% and DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 4070 SUPER by 27%.
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 actually plays very well on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER at 1440p, with playable framerates. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ends up being 97% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 2070 SUPER by 31%, and DLSS upscaling improves performance on the RTX 4070 SUPER by 30%.
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 we are getting 60FPS average on the RTX 2070 SUPER at 1440p, but the gameplay did chug at times. However, once we enabled DLSS Upscaling on the RTX 2070 SUPER, performance smoothed out well and was very playable at 90FPS. The RTX 4070 SUPER is 103% faster and very playable without upscaling. Enabling DLSS upscaling on the RTX 2070 SUPER improves performance by 38%, and DLSS upscaling on the RTX 4070 SUPER improves performance by 31%.
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.
Cyberpunk 2077 is demanding, and the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER doesn’t have the best experience in it at 1440p and Ultra settings. However, with DLSS upscaling at 1440p, it’s smooth and playable. The GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is 76% faster than the 2070 SUPER, so far this is the narrowest the performance differences have been. DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 2070 SUPER by 32%, and DLSS upscaling improves performance on the 4070 SUPER by 24%.