GeForce RTX 5090 showed very modest performance in Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K without DLSS 4 and frame generator

It’s no secret that the announcement of GeForce RTX 50 series video cards caused mixed reviews from the gaming community. On the one hand, the new DLSS 4 scaling technology with a multi-frame generator (MFG), which only works on these cards, can significantly increase FPS. On the other hand, not everyone was happy with the fact that the increase is achieved to a greater extent not due to pure performance, but due to frames rendered using various AI technologies.

Image source: NVIDIA

YouTube channel PC Centric published a video demonstrating the performance of the new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 video card in the game Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing technology in 4K resolution, with controversial AI functions turned on and off. When you enable DLSS 4 in Performance mode, the new MFG frame generator quadruples the number of frames per second, creating three additional frames. Thanks to this, the RTX 5090 produces about 280 FPS in the game. This is a very impressive result, especially considering the acceptable latency of around 52ms with occasional spikes.

Source of images here and below: YouTube / PC Centric

Switching DLSS to Quality mode reduced the frame rate to 230 FPS, but the latency remained the same at about 50 ms. Interestingly, when using the frame generator in 3x or even 2x mode, the difference in latency between them was negligible at about 44ms.

A significant drop in FPS was observed when the frame generator was completely turned off. With DLSS enabled in Quality mode and the generator disabled, the GeForce RTX 5090 was barely able to produce 70 FPS. After disabling DLSS, Nvidia’s new gaming flagship hit 34 frames per second, and the latency increased to 70 ms.

This test showed that DLSS 4 and MFG actually provide an incredible performance boost by rendering additional frames. As the example of Cyberpunk 2077 showed, this increase is achieved with minimal image degradation (artifacts).

The GeForce RTX 5090 also appeared for the first time in the Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan graphics benchmarks. DLSS technology does not play any role here. If you want to understand what improvements in raw performance the RTX 5090 offers over the RTX 4090, then these tests can provide some clues.

Image source: Geekbench

One reviewer tested the RTX 5090 in combination with a Core i9-12900K processor, an Asus ROG Strix Z690 motherboard and DDR4-3600 RAM. Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan test results showed that Nvidia’s new gaming flagship is indeed the fastest graphics card in these benchmarks. The RTX 5090 outperforms the GeForce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX in both tests.

In the Vulkan test, the new card, based on the results of three runs, showed results from 331,525 to 359,742 points, surpassing its predecessor by 26–37% (the result of the RTX 4090 was 262,487 points). However, in the OpenCL test the difference in performance was significantly lower – from 6.7 to 15%.