Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 reaches just under 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is undeniably one of the most anticipated games of the last decade. Earlier this week came the first reviews that more or less unanimously praised the game itself, but where many believe that technical flaws detract from the overall impression. It is also clear that it is extremely demanding and cumbersome even with the latest cutting hardware.

► FZ reviews Cyberpunk 2077

Now Nvidia publishes performance figures for its graphics cards and Cyberpunk 2077, where the data shows that even the company’s fastest graphics cards have a hard time keeping up when the controls are turned up to the max. The top model Geforce RTX 3090, which also calls itself the world’s fastest, gets only 22 FPS in 4K UHD with graphics settings on “Ultra” with ray tracing the surcharge.

Anyone who wants to be able to play with the settings at the top needs to turn on DLSS, which raises the number of frames by 163 percent – from 22 to 57.8 frames per second (FPS). In other words, the Geforce RTX 3090 does not even reach 60 FPS, which is seen by many PC gamers as a minimum level. The model below, the RTX 3080, stays at 51.8 FPS while the previous generation flagship RTX 2080 Ti stays at 38.2 FPS.

Getting over 60 FPS with the Geforce RTX 3090 requires either lower graphics settings or resolution. At 2,560 × 1,440 pixels, the flagship stays at 44.8 FPS without DLSS and 71.7 FPS with the technology turned on. The RTX 3080 also crosses the 60 mark. The former flagship RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070 both land at just under 50 FPS, while the RTX 3060 Ti ends up at 44.2 FPS.

Finally, Nvidia reduces the resolution to 1,920 × 1,080 pixels and here all graphics cards from Geforce RTX 3060 Ti up to RTX 3090 over the 60 FPS limit. With the DLSS rejection, however, only the RTX 3090 manages the same feat and for the RTX 3080 it is on the margin.

The figures show that DLSS provides a great boost in performance, but using the technology is far from a matter of course for enthusiasts. Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is a scaling technique, which through machine learning scales up a lower resolution to a higher one and thereby achieves better performance.

Upon introduction, the first generation of DLSS was sawn along the ankles, as it did not fulfill the promise of upscaling without a significant loss in image quality. Nvidia has continued to work on the technology and is now considered to work well, in cases where it is a good implementation of the game. Whether DLSS will be able to be used without too noticeable losses in image quality remains to be seen.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be launched for PC / Windows on December 10, when it will also reach the game consoles Playstation 4 (Pro) and Xbox One S / X, as well as the latest generation Playstation 5 and Xbox Series S / X. The game is also released on the streaming game service Google Stadia.