Ray tracing and DLSS/FSR 1440pp 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)
There’s no change for this new series of games, as we’re staying with 1440p definition as for rasterization, but here we’re doing without 2160p. Depending on the card, we’ll be using either DLSS for NVIDIA, FSR or XeSS for AMD and Intel models. If FSR is not available in a game, then we’ll give our AMD card the benefit of XeSS technology.
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 activated in ultra, an average of 118 FPS is achieved in 1440p. With FSR on, an average of 136 FPS is achieved.
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 Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC takes advantage of this to go from an average of 125 to 135 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 32.8 FPS at 1440p. The addition of FSR 2.1 boosts the number of FPS, with an average of 67.3 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.
For the third time, our Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC is behind the RTX 4070 SUPER. Ray tracing is still in favor of NVIDIA cards.
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 rasterization performance and activated the technologies that enable FPS gains. FSR 3 works perfectly, from an average of 32 FPS to 179 FPS.
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, AMD comes out on top with FSR 3. We go from 142 FPS to 192 FPS, but DLSS 3 performs better in this little game. As we mentioned in this newsletter, FSR 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, although our Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC is ahead of the RTX 4070, it’s still behind the new RTX 4070 SUPER.
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 one that also puts a strain on our graphics cards.
It’s FSR 3 and frame generation that are the most brutal here. Our Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC sees its average of 73 FPS rise to 210 FPS with FSR 3.
What about Ray Tracing on the Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC?
In the 8 games we tested, our Sapphire Pulse RX 7900 GRE Gaming OC performed well, but was unable to gain the upper hand over the RTX 4070 SUPER. It can still compete with the RTX 4070, but no longer with the “SUPER” model. FRS 3-compatible games and their frame generation bring an impressive increase in FPS. But it’s still NVIDIA that has the upper hand, as the number of games supported is far greater on the green side. FRS 3 does very well, but previous revisions struggle to keep up with DLSS 2, for example. DLSS therefore remains the most interesting technology when available.
