The RTX 3090 is seen be many as the first card which makes 8K PC gaming a reality. Nvidia have also marketed their flagship card as being capable of delivering playable frame rates at 8K. You can read more on that on Nvidia’s website:
In this article we will see what kind of performance we can actually expect from the GPU at 8K.
Test System
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5600X
GPU: ASUS STRIX RTX 3090 OC
Motherboard: ASRock Phantom Gaming 4
RAM: 16 GB Geil DDR4-3200 16-16-16-36
Monitor: VIZIO 43 Class LED M Series Quantum Series 2160p Smart 4K UHD TV with HDR
Games Tested
- A variety of games was tested spanning a time period of over 15 years. The oldest title that we tested was FEAR which was released in 2005.
- All the games that were tested included a built-in benchmark or a tech demo.
- Performance in DX9, DX10, DX11 and DX12 games has been analyzed
Testing Methodology
- As already mentioned, only games with a built-in benchmark or a tech demo were chosen for testing. The benchmark was run once and the average frame rate was recorded.
- All titles were tested at 4K and 8K resolution. The highest available in-game image quality settings were chosen for all titles (except Deus Ex Mankind Divided for which MSAA was disabled. Enabling it resulted in buggy performance).
- 8K resolution was set using Nvidia’s DSR technology. The native resolution of the monitor (TV) used is 3840 X 2160. 8K resolution refers 8192 X 4320 in all titles except Shadow of Mordor where it is 7680 X 4320.
Test Results
The figure below shows the average frame rates for 17 games at 4K and 8K resolutions.
- Metro Exodus (DLSS off) and Gears 5 make heavy use of RTX. At 4K, these are the only two games which do not break 60 fps average.
- The Talos Principle come as a surprise winner at 8K, especially considering that it is a fairly recent DX 12 title. DX9 titles released almost a decade earlier perform worse at then The Talos Principle at 8K.
- The best performance at 4K (447 fps!) is seen with FEAR, a classic title from 2005.
- The Strange Brigade and GRID, both DX 12 titles are quite playable at 8K.
The figure below is interesting. It represents the drop in the average FPS when going from 4K to 8K resolution. In other words, the average FPS for Sleeping Dogs drops by a factor of 4.81 if the resolution is increased from 4K to 8K. Interestingly, some of the of the older titles on this list experience relatively high differences in average FPS at 4K and 8K.
Conclusion
When it comes to gaming at 8K resolution with the highest in-game settings the majority of modern games (released in the past 10 years) will struggle to maintain a 60 FPS average. You would have to drop several image quality settings if playable frame rates are desired.
Having said this, some of the recent titles run exceptionally well at 8K – These include The Talos Principle, The Strange Brigade and GRID (2019).
It is amazing to see some of the older titles (DX9 and DX10) run at well over 60 FPS. In their heydays these titles would bring the highest end PCs to their knees at 1080p. There is great charm in being able to go back and play or benchmark those beloved titles at 8K resolutions.
In future articles, we would like to explore 8K performance in more detail in various titles. We would like to determine the optimal 8K image quality settings, and present a subjective view of the image quality at 8K resolution. We would also like to include some of the titles which lack built in benchmarks and tech demos.
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