Ray tracing and DLSS/FSR performances:
Let’s now take a look at the five games we have selected which support Ray Tracing and DLSS as well as for some the FSR from AMD and the new XeSS technology from Intel which is supported by Shadow Tomb Raider and Hitman 3. As we have already reminded you, if the DLSS remains the property of NVIDIA, the FSR and the XeSS can be used with all cards from AMD, Intel and even NVIDIA. This is an important notion to remember before starting the tests.
The six DirectX 12 games that we will test with Ray Tracing and DLSS, FSR or XeSS are :
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DLSS)
- Watch Dogs: Legion (DLSS)
- Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DLSS)
- Far Cry 6 (DLSS – FSR)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS – FSR)
- Hitman 3 (DLSS – XeSS)
No change for this new series of games since we remain in the 2160p definition. Depending on the card, we will use DLSS for NVIDIA and either FSR or XeSS for AMD models. If FSR is not available in a game, then we will use XeSS on our AMD card.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
First we add to this comparison and it supports Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. Three levels of Ray Tracing are offered in the game (medium – high – ultra) and the four levels of DLSS (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for ” ultra ” graphics quality, ” ultra ” Ray Tracing and ” performance ” DLSS or XeSS.
With Ray Tracing enabled in ultra, our Powercolor RX 7900 XTX Liquid Devil easily gets by with an average of 89 FPS. There is no FSR technology in Shadow of The Tomb Raider, but XeSS has recently been introduced. Even if this technology is aimed at Intel cards, our RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX can take advantage of it to boost performance. This game is therefore a formality for our two AMD cards.
Watch Dogs Legion:
Second game, Watch Dogs Legion supports Ray Tracing and DLSS 2.0. It is one of the most demanding games of the moment. Three levels of Ray Tracing are offered in the game (medium – high – ultra) and four levels of DLSS (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for ultra graphics quality, ” ultra ” Ray Tracing and ” performance ” DLSS.
The Ray Tracing in Watch Dogs Legion makes all cards suffer except for our model of the day. This is the test par excellence that will highlight the difficulties of AMD cards. The activation of Ray Tracing will not allow us to play in good conditions since the average FPS is far too low. So, yes, we could also have opted for a ” lighter ” Ray Tracing but that’s not the idea here. Without the presence of FSR or XeSS technologies, most 2160p games with active Ray Tracing will be unplayable for our RX 7900 XT or RX 7900 XTX. The only solution will be to go down to a lower definition.
Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition:
Third game and supports DLSS 2.0. Three levels of Ray Tracing are offered in the game and four levels of DLSS (performance – quality – balanced – ultra performance).
For our benchmarks, we opted for ultra graphics quality, ” high ” Ray Tracing and DLSS in ” performance ” mode.
The same case here in Metro Exodus PC as for Watch Dogs Legion. The conclusions are the same and without appeal.
Far Cry 6:
The latest game we add to this section since it supports DXR as well as FSR offered by AMD.
For our benchmarks, we have opted for Ultra graphics quality, we have enabled both DRX options as well as FSR in ” performance ” mode.
In Far Cry 6, FSR is the only choice available to boost FPS after enabling Ray Tracing. All our cards can benefit from it, regardless of the manufacturer. So this is a case where even NVIDIA graphics cards will benefit from a performance boost.
The FSR is still to the advantage of AMD cards and our graphic uses the same construction as in our 2160p games with the RTX 4080 sandwiched between the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX.
Cyberpunk 2077:
New game we added that offers in its settings the activation of DLSS but also FSR.
For our benchmarks, we chose a “high” graphic quality, an ” ultra ” Ray Tracing and a ” balanced ” DLSS/FSR.
This is the most demanding game where our cards have a hard time keeping up. Here, it’s violent for our AMD models that struggle to keep up. We also had a hard time testing the previous generation (RX 6000). Cyberpunk 2077 benefits from FSR 2.1 and allows our RX 7900 XTX to get closer to the symbolic 60 FPS mark. It will be necessary to be less greedy in terms of graphic parameters so that the RX 7900 XT can also reach the average of 61.2 FPS.
Note that FRS 2.1 boosts our performance by 177% and DLSS 2.0 by 171%. The two technologies are therefore quite close in terms of gains.
Hitman 3:
Last game also added since this one is now compatible with DLSS, FSR and XeSS technology. Depending on the model of the tested card, we opt for one of these three technologies.
For our benchmarks, we chose “high” graphics quality, ” enabled ” Ray Tracing and ” performance ” DLSS/Xess.
We find a situation close to the previous game with both our cards suffering when Ray Tracing is enabled. Fortunately Hitman 3 also benefits from FSR 2.0 and allows our Powercolor RX 7900 XTX Red Devil Limited Edition to easily pass the 60 FPS mark with an average of 86.8 FPS.
So Ray Tracing with these Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX :
The conclusion is pretty simple. It will be very complicated to enjoy 2160p definition with active Ray Tracing if the game does not have XeSS or FSR technologies. If this is the case, even if our two cards suffer, it will be possible to reach the 60 FPS mark quite easily.
This new generation improves and manages to handle Ray Tracing better. AMD must make sure that the next big games will be able to integrate their own technology, i.e. FidelityFX Super Resolution. We also notice that overall the DLSS is more efficient than the two other technologies proposed by AMD and Intel. Let’s also remember that we are here on DLSS 2 and that we could realize that DLSS 3 still allows superior gains in terms of FPS.
