Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 review: a new level in graphics power

Blitzes the games of today, built for the titles of tomorrow.

Review by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on Oct. 12, 2022

Ray tracing benchmarks are all well and good, but the reality is that RT becomes much more viable with the introduction of image reconstruction techniques. In this area of benchmarking, we opt for 4K performance modes, typically upscaling from a native 1080p, alongside 1440p balanced mode - this can vary between upscalers, but usually targets an 840p-level base resolution. For 1080p upscaling, we go for quality mode, based on an internal 720p. Yes, the lower the output resolution, typically the higher the input resolution you need for a decent result. We aren't comparing quality here, merely performance on the given modes.

To reiterate how our benchmarking system presents, what you see changes according to the device you're viewing this. You'll get a basic overview of our findings on mobile, with metadata from the video capture of each GPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat DF experience with embedded YouTube videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each card handled the scene as it progresses. Below the real-time metrics is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. All the data here is derived from video captured directly from each GPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

Dying Light 2

Our benchmarks are based on games where the developer has had the vision to support the best quality upscaling solutions from all vendors - or Nvidia and AMD in the case of this title. Dying Light 2 supports both DLSS and FSR2, so it makes the grade. By rendering at a lower internal resolution, you maximise output frame-rates but in doing so, you lose some of the gen-on-gen gains. However, for Dying Light 2 to exceed 100fps with all of its RT features active and with a decent-looking 4K output is a good thing. The question is the extent to which we're CPU-limited owing to the native 1080p input at 4K, and whether RTX 4090 should be targeting a higher DLSS quality mode instead.

Dying Light 2, Ultra RT, DX12, DLSS vs FSR2

Marvel's Spider-Man

Despite FEAST HQ being one of the most GPU-intensive areas of the game, gains on RTX 4090 are limited because we are still managing to hit the CPU limit, so this is definitely a title where RTX 4090 users should be aiming for the higher DLSS quality presets... even though the 4K performance mode actually looks rather good! The other option - once the patch drops - is to invoke DLSS 3 frame generation to overcome the CPU limitation. We've got some DLSS 3 metrics with Marvel's Spider-Man on the next page.

Marvel's Spider-Man, Very High, Max RT, DX12, DLSS vs FSR2

We're aiming to add Hitman 3 to this page in due course. Io Interactive is one of the most forward-looking developers out there, to the point where it's not just DLSS supported, but FSR 2.1 and even Intel XeSS. Bearing in mind that all of these upscaling technologies are based on the same core inputs, there's no reason why a game that supports one should not support them all - and the Digital Foundry position is that even PC games locked into vendor-specific deals should not lock out upscalers from their rivals.