The mighty NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 does not fear games, games fear it. The card is more than capable of gaming at 4K resolutions above the standard recommendation of 60fps, but there will be users who will invest in this system and pair it with a high refresh rate 1440p display. We've included selected gaming results at both resolutions to give you some idea of the expected performance.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
The oldest of our titles, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is still an exceptionally attractive game that utilises the DirectX 11 API. In deference to its vintage, we'll be testing at 1440p and 4K with Ultra image quality presets.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The second sequel to the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also one of the first titles to incorporate NVIDIA RTX ray traced shadows and DLSS. At 1440p and 4K we’ll be testing with Ray Tracing on but without the benefit of DLSS’s recommended 1080p and 1440p upscaling modes respectively.
Horizon Zero Dawn
This game was new to PC in August 2020 and already has a reputation for taxing GPU hardware. It doesn't feature ray tracing, but nonetheless has some of the most stunning scenes ever rendered in games. We've used the Ultimate preset at 1440p and 4K here, but Favoured also offers a visual feast with markedly higher performance.
Control
Critically acclaimed on release, Control is the title which made most comprehensive use of NVIDIA RTX prior to Cyberpunk 2077's release in Holiday 2020. Shadows, lighting and reflections all make use of this advanced rendering standard, helping the transition from mundane world to its nightmarish reflection. We opted for the Highest detail settings preset with RTX features enabled including the default recommended level of DLSS: a rendering resolution of 1920x1080.
Cyberpunk 2077
Finally reliable after major patch releases, CDProjekt RED's neo-futurist open world RPG has stunning visuals and ray traced lighting effects to enjoy. We took it for a spin with RTX On.
The oldest of our titles, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is still an exceptionally attractive game that utilises the DirectX 11 API. In deference to its vintage, we'll be testing at 1440p and 4K with Ultra image quality presets.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The second sequel to the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also one of the first titles to incorporate NVIDIA RTX ray traced shadows and DLSS. At 1440p and 4K we’ll be testing with Ray Tracing on but without the benefit of DLSS’s recommended 1080p and 1440p upscaling modes respectively.
Horizon Zero Dawn
This game was new to PC in August 2020 and already has a reputation for taxing GPU hardware. It doesn't feature ray tracing, but nonetheless has some of the most stunning scenes ever rendered in games. We've used the Ultimate preset at 1440p and 4K here, but Favoured also offers a visual feast with markedly higher performance.
Control
Critically acclaimed on release, Control is the title which made most comprehensive use of NVIDIA RTX prior to Cyberpunk 2077's release in Holiday 2020. Shadows, lighting and reflections all make use of this advanced rendering standard, helping the transition from mundane world to its nightmarish reflection. We opted for the Highest detail settings preset with RTX features enabled including the default recommended level of DLSS: a rendering resolution of 1920x1080.
Cyberpunk 2077
Finally reliable after major patch releases, CDProjekt RED's neo-futurist open world RPG has stunning visuals and ray traced lighting effects to enjoy. We took it for a spin with RTX On.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - 1440p Ultra Preset - 290 fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 1440p, DX 12; Highest Preset; RTX Shadows High; SMAAx4 Anti aliasing - 177 fps
Horizon Zero Dawn - 1440p, Ultimate Quality - 159 fps
Control - 1440p; Highest Quality; RTX On; DLSS Recommended - 175 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 - 1440p, Highest Quality, RTX On, DLSS Off - 76 fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 1440p, DX 12; Highest Preset; RTX Shadows High; SMAAx4 Anti aliasing - 177 fps
Horizon Zero Dawn - 1440p, Ultimate Quality - 159 fps
Control - 1440p; Highest Quality; RTX On; DLSS Recommended - 175 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 - 1440p, Highest Quality, RTX On, DLSS Off - 76 fps
It will come as no surprise that the Hyper Liquid X139 chews through titles at 1440p, by itself making the argument for a variable refresh rate monitor that can hit or exceed 144Hz. Even with the power of NVIDIA's RTX 4090 the resolutions will remain the gamers choice, allowing them to turn up the eye candy in even the most modern titles without sacrificing the gaming experience. Your favourite slightly older titles in particular - those released in the past 5 years - will all benefit even as you enjoy cutting edge titles at their best.
It's a little more surprising that it makes the same arguments for a VRR 4K monitor, leveraging great performance to approach 4K @ 120fps averages in many titles. At all stages it trivialises Middle-Earth: Shadow of War as a challenge. Even Cyberpunk 2077, the most demanding of the bunch, worked hard to reach a >60fps average at 1440p, albeit requiring DLSS to do the same at 4K. We're still not quite at the performance level needed to hit 4K60fps without DLSS on Cyberpunk, hovering at around 40fps, but it's a testament to the card that it's even playable.
