Ray tracing and DLSS/FSR 2160p performance:
Let’s turn our attention to the eight games we’ve selected that support Ray Tracing, DLSS, AMD’s FSR and Intel’s XeSS technology. As we’ve already reminded you, while DLSS remains the property of NVIDIA, FSR and XeSS can be used with any card from AMD, Intel or even NVIDIA. We’ve chosen to remove Watch Dogs: Legion since it’s the only game that supports only one technology, DLSS.
The eight DirectX 12 games we’ll be testing with Ray Tracing, if available, as well as DLSS, FSR or XeSS are :
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider (RT – DLSS – XeSS)
- Far Cry 6 (DXR – FSR)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (RT – DLSS 3 – FSR – XeSS)
- Hitman 3 (RT – DLSS 3 – XeSS – FSR)
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (DLSS – XeSS – FSR 3)
- Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (DLSS 3 – XeSS – FSR)
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage (DLSS – Xess – FSR)
- Forspoken (DLSS – XeSS – FSR 3)
No change for this new series of games, as we’re sticking with 2160p definition as for rasterization. Depending on the card, we’ll use either DLSS for NVIDIA or FSR or XeSS for AMD and Intel models. If FSR is not available in a game, we’ll use XeSS on our AMD card.
DLSS 3: watch out for our results!
As you know, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with the arrival of the RTX 4000 graphics cards, and in particular with the launch of the RTX 4090 version. So why the warning? Because NVIDIA now offers DLSS 3 support on many games, but this is only supported by RTX 4000s. To put it simply, if we test a game that benefits from DLSS 3, our RTX 4060 Ti will take advantage of it, but an RTX 30xx will make do with DLSS 2, resulting in even greater discrepancies, especially thanks to frame generation. We currently have three games that support DLSS 3, and we’ll be increasing this number over the coming weeks.
But AMD has also reacted by offering its FSR 3, also combined with frame generation technology, which significantly increases the number of FPS. But now it’s time for the graphics, which will speak volumes in terms of performance.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider:
First, which we’re adding to this comparison and which 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 “very high” graphics quality, “ultra” Ray Tracing and “balanced” DLSS.
With Ray Tracing set to ultra, an average of 100 FPS is achieved at 2160p. The performance achieved with DLSS 2 in this game is much better than that achieved with FSR 1.
Far Cry 6:
Far Cry 6 supports DXR and AMD’s FSR, but not DLSS.
For our benchmarks, we opted for Ultra graphics quality, activated both DRX options and FSR in “balanced” mode.
In Far Cry 6, FSR is the only choice available to boost FPS after activating Ray Tracing. So all our cards can benefit, regardless of manufacturer. Our ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition takes advantage of this to go from an average of 99 to 134 FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077:
Cyberpunk 2077 features DLSS and FSR activation in its settings. Note that this was the first game to enable DLSS3 for RTX 40xx graphics cards, as well as frame generation. For our benchmarks, we opted for “ultra” graphics quality, “ultra” Ray Tracing and “balanced” DLSS/FSR.
This is one of our most demanding games, where our cards have great difficulty keeping up. Here, the average is 30.2 FPS at 2160p. The addition of the new DLSS 3 and frame generation boosts FPS numbers by a staggering 105.4 FPS.
Hitman 3:
Hitman 3 now supports DLSS, FSR and XeSS technology. Depending on the model of card tested, we opt for one of these three technologies.
For our benchmarks, we opted for “high” graphics quality, “enabled” Ray Tracing and “balanced” DLSS/Xess.
We find ourselves in a familiar situation with our ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition in second place. Hitman 3 also benefits from DLSS 3 and frame generation, so the FPS gain is very significant.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora:
One of the three new games we’ve just included in our rasterization tests. It’s a recent game from 2023 that tends to put a strain on our graphics cards. For our benchmarks, we’ve opted for “ultra” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, as it supports FSR 3. The idea is to balance games that benefit from DLSS 3 and FSR 3.
No Ray Tracing here, so we’ve taken the rasterization performance and activated the technologies that enable FPS gains. DLSS 2 does the job perfectly, but we can also see that AMD’s FSR 3 could start to rival DLSS 3.
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3:
We couldn’t do without adding Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 to our graphics card tests. For our benchmarks, we have opted for “extreme” graphics quality. This game will also feature in our DLSS/FSR/Xess tests, since it supports frame generation.
As with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, there’s no Ray Tracing here, so we’ll be activating each manufacturer’s own technology. And in this little game, NVIDIA comes out on top with DLSS 3 combined with frame generation. With over 174 FPS, we’re perfectly at ease in 2160p. As we mentioned, DLSS 3 is now supported in Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage:
With a fairly recent integrated benchmark, we decided to add Assassin’s Creed Mirage to our tests.
Here, even if our ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition retains the advantage in rasterization and also when DLSS 2 is activated, AMD cards are not to be outdone.
Forspoken:
This is the last game we’re adding, as it will also be used on the next page, with the presence of FSR 3. It’s also a fairly recent game, and it, too, puts a strain on our graphics cards.
It’s FSR 3 and frame generation that are the most brutal here. Now, that’s nothing to worry about with our ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition, which goes from 62 to 115 FPS with DLSS.
So, what about Ray Tracing with the ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition?
In the 8 games we tested, our ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC Edition performed perfectly. When Ray Tracing is activated, it’s no problem at all, since DLSS is always present behind it. In fact, NVIDIA is dominating the exchanges, thanks in particular to the arrival of DLSS 3 and frame generation, but AMD is fighting back. The reds also hit back with FRS 3 and their frame generation, again bringing an increase in FPS. But NVIDIA still has the upper hand, as the number of games supported is far greater on the green side. FRS 3 is doing very well, but previous revisions are struggling against DLSS 2, for example. DLSS therefore remains the most interesting technology when available.
The gains measured with the RTX 4080 are again in the same league as those we’ve seen with rasterization, with an average gain of 6 to 7%.
