Upon presentation of the GeForce RTX 3090 , Nvidia spoke of it as a multipurpose video card, equipped with a lot of video memory to manage particularly complex renderings and at the same time strong of specifications higher than the RTX 3080 in the gaming sector. We have observed how the difference in performance with the RTX 3080, even in 4K, does not justify the purchase, however there was an open question to be verified, namely whether the RTX 3090, as stated by Nvidia, truly represents “ the world’s first gaming GPU to play in 8K “. We carried out some tests to draw the often blurred boundary between marketing and reality.

Before pass to the numbers however, remember that the 8K resolution (7680 x 4320 pixel) requires GPU to play on screen 12 times the number of pixels del 1080 p (1920 x 1080 pixels) and therefore a large amount of VRAM memory is required, as well as a very, very powerful GPU . GeForce RTX 3080, with its 10 GB of memory, cannot be load of the 8K in every situation (and we will see it later). In order for a video card to be able to play 8K on a TV / monitor at that resolution with a single cable, an HDMI 2.1 connection is also required. , a feature that both GeForce cards and the latest generation Radeons are equipped with.

But all this is not enough. The GA GPU 102 on board the RTX 3090, however powerful with its 10496 CUDA core, the 82 2nd generation RT core ei 329 Third Generation Tensor Core, cannot always manage the 8K resolution by performing a native rendering, especially if you set the details to the maximum level and above all, ray tracing is enabled. And this is where the DLSS (more details here) comes into play, a technology that Nvidia has put point and that it supports the performance of the GeForce RTX when ray tracing is activated.

Together with the RTX 3090, Nvidia has introduced the “ Ultra Performance Mode”, a further branch of the DLSS designed specifically for 8K . In practice, and simplifying a lot, the DLSS goes to do a sort of upscaling of the resolution from 950 pa 8K, a nine times boost, more than the four times guaranteed by the “simple” Performance Mode. This causes the image quality to be high, but the performance impact is significantly lower than native rendering.

Control, Death Stranding and Wolfenstein: Youngblood are among the games that support Ultra Performance Mode , so we ran some tests with these and other titles using both the RTX 3090 that the RTX 3080 – in some cases, where possible, we have also included the Radeon RX 6900 XT. For the test we used a Samsung Q TV 950 TS, an 8K QLED from 65 inches , to check the behavior of Nvidia’s video cards at that resolution. Below are the game detail settings:

• Control: DX 12, high quality, high ray tracing, DLSS enabled, render resolution 1440 p (for the test with DLSS), final resolution 8K (in the case of the “no DLSS” test the rendering resolution is equal to the final resolution)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood: Vulkan, high quality, active ray tracing reflexes, DLSS Uber Performance (for testing with DLSS, otherwise off), Riverside integrated test
• Doom Eternal: Vulkan, Ultra, resolution scaling disabled, HDR active
• Metro Exodus: Ultra details, Ultra ray tracing, DLSS On (Off in the “no DLSS” test)
• DiRT 5: 8K resolution locked, details Ultra
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Maximum detail setting, RTX Ultra, DLSS On (Off for “no DLSS” test)
• Death Stranding: DX 12, high details, TAA, medium model details, DLSS Ultra Performance (for DLSS testing, otherwise off)

Our tests tell us that in titles with Ultra Performance Mode, the GeForce RTX 3090 offers almost playable performance. There is also the case of Doom Eternal , a game that focuses on responsiveness and speed (based on the Vulkan API), in which the native rendering in 8K allows the card to get closer to the fateful 30 fps . Death Stranding and Wolfenstein Youngblood return playable performances even with the RTX 3080 in the presence of the new mode by DLSS.

Regarding the card from AMD, which is not advertised in any way for 8K , we must report that in some cases we were unable to run the tests (for example Tomb Raider or Control) due to sudden crashes or 1-2 fps performance. This is also true for the RTX 3080, in some cases we have seen crashes, and in Wolfenstein and Control we were told that the VRAM memory was finished. In general the RX 6900 XT performs worse than RTX 3090, with the exception of DiRT 5, which is particularly favorable to AMD GPUs, where it is slightly faster (although it’s more of a draw actually) –

Nvidia, therefore, does not lie when it talks about a GPU capable of handling 8K, but we need to add a bit, that is “with DLSS” . There are titles that may come close to 60 fps even with native rendering, especially by lowering the level of detail, but they must be rather light or dated games. Having said that, let’s see how in some titles we arrive at 30 fps, which bodes well for future generations of GPUs, DLSS or not. In any case, there remains further proof of how the GPUs of this generation represent a clear step forward compared to previous proposals. In conclusion, even if the marketing does its job by advertising the card also for the 8K, certainly it must not be this promise to guide your purchase idea, even with a look to the future : when this resolution becomes popular, and years will pass, the GeForce RTX 3090 will already have become a technological residue.