Gameplay Performance – Ray Tracing
In this section we take our game library and enable ray tracing in those games that support it. The remainer of the settings are unchanged from the previous section.
Alan Wake 2
The transition to ray tracing can be pretty rough sometimes. None of these video cards are playable at native resolution. Still, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition is the top performer by 15%. When upscaling is enabled, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition and the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT are both playable and actually quite smooth. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT bests the other two AMD video cards by 29% and 50%. Overclocking improves the FPS in upscaling by 8%.
Black Myth Wukong
This game is so graphically demanding that we had to lower the resolution to 1080p in order to enable ray tracing and still have something to talk about. It is simply too much at 1440p, even with upscaling. Even with that adjustment, only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition was playable at all, using upscaling. No matter how you analyze it, the NVIDIA card is 50% faster. On the AMD side of things, the same thing can be said, but the overall results are dismal. You will have to lower the settings quite a bit in this game to enjoy ray tracing with a SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk continues to flex its muscles in ray tracing. Only two cards are playable natively, but the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC has to be overclocked to say that. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition is faster by 6%; however, it gives up to second place with upscaling by 2%. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC prevails over the other two AMD cards by 52% and 70%. With upscaling, all 4 cards are playable, right at the margin with the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming OC taking home the prize along with 30% over the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and the PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE.
Star Wars Outlaws
In Star Wars Outlaws, none of our cards are playable natively. Only the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Founders Edition is able to pass 60 FPS with upscaling. The SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT surpasses the other two AMD cards by 16% and 35%, but it’s pretty shallow given the absolute FPS. Again, to enjoy ray tracing benefits in the game, you will need to lower the settings.