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Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series gaming benchmarks revealed: DLSS 4.0 required for meaningful performance gains on non-flagship models

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards will be available for purchase later this month (image source: Nvidia)
Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards will be available for purchase later this month (image source: Nvidia)
Nvidia has published some first-party benchmarks of the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070. As anticipated, these cards heavily rely on software features like DLSS 4.0 to offer meaningful performance upgrades over their last-gen counterparts.

Nvidia made some bold claims at the RTX 50 series launch at CES 2025. One of them stated the GeForce RTX 5070 would perform on par with the RTX 4090 in some instances. Now, some first-party benchmarks of the Blackwell-based GPUs emerged via Computerbase. They show off how the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 fare against their Ada Lovelace counterparts.

GeForce RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 benchmarks from Nvidia (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 benchmarks from Nvidia (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 gaming performance with and without DLSS (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 gaming performance with and without DLSS (image source: Computerbase)

Resident Evil 4 and Horizon Forbidden West show us the real power of Nvidia's flagship GeForce RTX 5090. Compared to the GeForce RTX 4090, the former runs roughly 25% faster on the new Blackwell GPU with no AI-powered upscaling, while the latter performs more or less the same with an older version of DLSS.

However, with DLSS 4.0 thrown in the mix, the performance boost is over 2x in certain titles such as Black Myth: Wukong, Alan Wake 2, and Star Wars: Outlaws. Even though the GeForce RTX 5090 can natively run these titles at max settings, DLSS 4.0 allows for a 5x increase in frame rate according to Nvidia's benchmarks.

GeForce RTX 5080 vs RTX 4080

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 vs RTX 4080 gaming benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 vs RTX 4080 gaming benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)

Things begin to get a lot less impressive with the GeForce RTX 5080. Without DLSS, it barely offers any performance uplift over the RTX 4080. This is to be expected because both models aren't all that different in VRAM and CUDA cores count, and for some reason the extra power budget and GDDR7 modules on the RTX 5080 don't seem to be helping much. 

GeForce RTX 5070 Ti/RTX 5070 vs RTX 4070 Ti/RTX 4070

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti vs RTX 4070 Ti benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti vs RTX 4070 Ti benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 vs RTX 4070 benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 vs RTX 4070 benchmarks (image source: Computerbase)

Even though the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 come with substantially more and faster GDDR7 VRAM than the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4070, it doesn't translate to much of a raw performance uplift in games. Once again, double-digit gains are only possible with DLSS 4.0 enabled. This will likely be a recurring theme with the entire Blackwell lineup, including the laptop SKUs.

While some would consider the GeForce RTX 5090 substantial enough to replace their old RTX 4090, the rest of the lineup doesn't seem to offer much in the way of generation-over-generation improvements. Of course, technologies like DLSS 4 and Neural Rendering will be worth looking forward to from a purely technical point of view.

That said, the GeForce RTX 50 series should be an attractive buy for RTX 30 series graphics card owners. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070, in particular, should serve as decent 1080p and 1440p cards, respectively. But, it is best to hold off on any purchases until AMD unveils its RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, both of which look moderately promising in early leaks. 

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 01 > Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series gaming benchmarks revealed: DLSS 4.0 required for meaningful performance gains on non-flagship models
Anil Ganti, 2025-01-15 (Update: 2025-01-15)