2160p gaming upscaling performance:
In this section, we’re going to test our graphics cards by activating ray tracing, if available, and upscaling depending on the graphics card used. As a reminder, there are currently three upscaling technologies . NVIDIA has DLSS, which can only be activated with NVIDIA cards. Depending on the generation of your GPU, you may or may not be able to take advantage of all the technologies offered by the Greens. At AMD, it’s FSR, which is also evolving and also benefits from Frame Generation for certain games.
Finally, Intel’s in-house upscaling is called XeSS, and with the arrival of this new generation of graphics cards, Intel has taken the opportunity to announce the arrival of XeSS 2, which will introduce two new features to compete with NVIDIA and AMD, who are already ahead of the game in this area. Intel will be offering Xe Frame Generation (XeSS-FG) and XeSS Low Latency (XeLL).
Today sees the arrival of DLSS 4, and in our comparative tests, only Cyberpunk 2077 is already compatible. On the next page, we’ll be showing you a selection of other games compatible with DLSS 4. Finally, it’s important to point out that some games don’t have ray tracing, but only an upscaling solution. We’ll make this clear in the games below. For 2160p definition, upscaling in either DLSS or FSR will always be in Performance mode.
Cyberpunk 2077:
Here we go again, with Cyberpunk 2077 as our first game. It’s our NVIDIA cards that are in front, thanks to DLSS 3. Please note that here, for the purposes of comparison, DLSS 3 is used with our RTX 5090 Founders Edition. DLSS 4 will be discussed on the next page. Our sample of the day managed to achieve an average of 60 FPS in 2160p with ray tracing in Ultra mode! DLSS 3 enabled it to reach 215.7 FPS.
COD Modern Warfare III:
No worries in Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III, where upscaling still allows you to gain FPS, even if our RTX 5090 doesn’t really need it, with an average of 172 FPS.
Forspoken :
While the RTX 5090 is well ahead in terms of rasterisation, with an average of 145 FPS, it’s the AMD RX 7000 that benefits from upscaling. Of course, you’ll have to pay close attention to image quality, but as we said, there’s no need to resort to upscaling when you see the average we get.
Horizon Zeron Dawn Remastered:
The same applies to Horizon Zeron Dawn Remastered, with our NVIDIA RTX 5090 far ahead in terms of rasterisation.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider:
In Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, our sample of the day ran into a few problems. The benchmark launches, but after a moment it shuts down and we return to Steam with no error information.
Black Myth: Wukong Benchmark Tool :
Here we go again with Black Myth: Wukong, a very demanding game that benefits from ray tracing. And it’s precisely in this type of case that upscaling is useful, as our average with ray tracing activated is 47 FPS, rising to 133 FPS when we use DLSS Performance combined with Frame Generation. This game will benefit from DLSS 4 in the near future.
Far Cry 6:
No DLSS here, we’re using AMD’s upscaling, which explains the very low gain between DXR and upscaling mode.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage :
The same applies to Assassin’s Creed Mirage, with our sample in first place.
F1 24 :
The last game on our test panel and the DLSS Performance combined with Frame Generation allows our model of the day to dominate the other cards.
What about upscaling with our RTX 5090?
In the end, it’s not necessary at all! The card performs so well in rasterisation that if the game doesn’t have ray tracing, there’s no need for upscaling at all . Once ray tracing is available, however, its use becomes necessary or even compulsory to take full advantage of 2160p definition. It will be necessary to compare the images offered by the different upscaling systems in order to judge their qualities and shortcomings, but that will be the subject of a later test. Let’s take a closer look at the performance that awaits us in games already compatible with DLSS 4.