Nvidia’s 4x Performance Gains for RTX 4000 GPUs Deflate Without DLSS

If you believe Nvidia, its upcoming GeForce RTX 4000 graphics cards will offer a two- to four-times performance increase over its last-generation GPUs. But a benchmark from the company is poking a hole in some of those claims. 

After Nvidia announced the products, it released an image that shows the performance gains consumers can expect from next-generation GPUs, which will span three models: The RTX 4080 12GB, the RTX 4080 16GB, and the RTX 4090.  

The benchmark compares the new crop of graphics cards against an RTX 3090 Ti, which launched in March for $1,999 as the most powerful model in the older RTX 3000 series.   

(Credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia has been happy to boast that the RTX 4090 will offer a two- to four-times performance gain over the RTX 3090 Ti, which sounds like an enticing selling point. The same benchmark—which tested the games on the highest settings running at 4K—even shows the RTX 4080 models handily beating the older GPU by a huge margin. 

But if you look closely, the RTX 4090 can only offer a 4x improvement for so-called “next-generation titles.” This includes an upcoming version of Cyberpunk 2077 that adds a new “Overdrive RT mode” for better graphics and Nvidia’s own tech demo, Racer RTX, which isn’t even a real game. 

On existing PC titles, performance gains fall to 2x; the RTX 4090 drops even lower. It’s also interesting to note how the gap between RTX 4080 models and the RTX 3090 Ti begins to close for currently available games. In fact, the 12GB RTX 4080 model can underperform against the 3090 Ti. 

The GPU maker also held a Q&A(Opens in a new window) on Reddit, where it revealed the biggest gains in the benchmark are dependent on frame-rate boosting DLSS technology ratcheting up performance. 

The non-DLSS supported games are highlighted in red.
(Credit: Nvidia)

“This chart has DLSS turned on when supported, but there are some games like Division 2 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in the chart that don’t have DLSS, so you can see performance compared to our fastest RTX 30 Series GPU without DLSS,” Nvidia wrote. 

Indeed, none of the three games—Resident Evil Village, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and The Division 2—officially support Nvidia’s DLSS technology, according(Opens in a new window) to the company’s list. It also explains the stark drop-off in performance gains for the RTX 4000 series: Without DLSS support, the GPUs can no longer reach a 2x performance increase compared against RTX 3090 Ti.

That means the RTX 4000 series will probably offer a more muted upgrade when it comes to raw performance over the last generation. It also shows Nvidia is heavily relying on DLSS to prop up performance claims for next-generation GPUs. 

One of the main features for the new graphics cards is DLSS 3, an improved version of the frame-rate boosting tech that’s exclusive to RTX 4000 series. In a presentation to journalists, Nvidia showed the technology can offer a massive FPS uplift of two to even six times. 

(Credit: Nvidia)

But the catch is that DLSS 3 is entirely dependent on games adopting the technology. Nvidia says(Opens in a new window) so far over 35 games plan on adding DLSS 3, with the first coming in October. However, the technology promises to be easy for software developers to adopt, especially since it’s being added to game engines including Unreal Engine 4 and 5. 

Still, consumers should take Nvidia’s claim about the 2x to 4x performance gain with a heavy grain of salt until the tech press can get their hands on the GPUs. Stay tuned for our reviews when we can really put the graphics cards to the test.