I have been eagerly awaiting the launch of AMD’s RDNA 3 graphics cards and Nvidia’s RTX 40 series GPUs. With both companies promising massive performance improvements, especially for ray tracing workloads, I wanted to do a deep dive and analysis into how these two new GPU architectures compare for real-time ray tracing. Here is an in-depth look at the ray tracing face-off between RDNA 3 and RTX 4090.
Ray Tracing Performance
Ray tracing performance is going to be a major battleground between RDNA 3 and RTX 4090. AMD and Nvidia have taken very different approaches to hardware ray tracing acceleration.
Nvidia RTX 4090
Nvidia has their dedicated RT cores and 3rd-generation RT cores in the RTX 4090 that provide specialized ray tracing hardware acceleration. The RTX 4090 has 76 2nd-gen RT cores and 304 3rd-gen RT cores for a total of 380 RT cores.
This represents a huge increase over the RTX 3090 which had just 82 RT cores total. Nvidia claims the RTX 4090 delivers up to 2-4x more ray tracing performance compared to the RTX 3090. The 4090 also has considerably faster clock speeds, more CUDA cores, and higher memory bandwidth versus the 3090.
AMD RDNA 3
AMD takes a different approach, with no dedicated ray tracing cores on RDNA 3. Instead, they rely on the standard compute units and enhanced ray tracing extensions to the RDNA 3 architecture.
Details are still light, but AMD claims RDNA 3 ray tracing performance is improved by 50% per compute unit compared to RDNA 2. The top RDNA 3 GPU is rumored to have around 96 compute units, so it could have up to 1.5x higher ray tracing throughput versus RDNA 2.
We’ll have to wait for independent benchmarks, but it seems like Nvidia still has the ray tracing hardware advantage with the dedicated RT cores. But RDNA 3 ray tracing enhancements and faster clock speeds may help close the gap versus Ampere.
Ray Tracing Visual Quality
Both AMD and Nvidia have made improvements to ray tracing visual quality for this new generation.
Nvidia RTX 40 Series
For the RTX 40 series, Nvidia has enhanced their ray tracing effects like shadows, reflections, global illumination, and ambient occlusion.
Key upgrades include:
- Higher ray counts for more accurate and detailed ray traced effects
- Improvements to ray traced shadows – reduced artifacts, correct penumbra widths
- Upgraded ray traced ambient occlusion – higher sample counts, reduced noise
- Faster denoisers – better quality for interactive ray tracing
These should provide noticeably higher quality ray traced lighting, shadows, and reflections in supported games.
AMD RDNA 3
AMD has not revealed full details on RDNA 3 ray tracing improvements yet. However, they have mentioned upgraded ray tracing effects as well.
Some of the key ray tracing visual enhancements for RDNA 3 are likely to include:
- Improved ray traced shadows – less noise, fewer artifacts
- Higher quality ambient occlusion – more samples, faster rays
- Faster denoising like Nvidia
- Support for more complex effects like ray traced global illumination
RDNA 3 ray tracing quality should take a nice leap over RDNA 2, thanks to the architecture improvements. But Nvidia RTX 40 series may still have the edge in maximum visual quality given its dedicated hardware RT cores.
Performance in Ray Traced Games
To get a sense of how RDNA 3 and RTX 4090 will compare in real games with ray tracing enabled, let’s look at some examples.
Cyberpunk 2077
This game has extremely demanding ray tracing effects like shadows, global illumination, and ambient occlusion.
At 4K with max settings and all ray tracing effects enabled, the RTX 3090 sees about 45 FPS. The 4090 is expected to hit over 90 FPS based on Nvidia’s claims.
For the top RDNA 3 GPU, if we assume a 50% ray tracing improvement per compute unit, it should deliver around 65-70 FPS at 4K with ray tracing maxed out.
So in this very ray tracing intensive game, the RTX 4090 has a significant performance advantage based on current projections.
Control
With ray traced reflections and shadows enabled at 4K max settings, Control runs around 60 FPS on the RTX 3090.
The RTX 4090 should hit 110-120 FPS in Control based on Nvidia’s projections.
The top RDNA 3 GPU should manage 85-95 FPS with the same ray tracing effects at 4K.
The RTX 4090 is still noticeably faster, but RDNA 3 closes the gap more than in Cyberpunk.
Quake 2 RTX
This game is built around GPU-based ray tracing, with global illumination, shadows, and reflections all handled with ray tracing.
The RTX 3090 hits just 40-45 FPS at 4K with max settings. Nvidia says the 4090 will hit over 120 FPS.
With its architectural ray tracing improvements, the top RDNA 3 card should achieve around 70-80 FPS.
Again, the RTX 4090 has a big performance lead in this ray tracing showcase game.
Power Efficiency
Power efficiency is another vital metric when comparing high-end GPUs like these.
The RTX 4090 has a 450W TDP, while the RTX 3090 was at 350W. So Nvidia has increased power consumption considerably.
AMD’s RDNA 3 power efficiency is still to be determined. But RDNA 2 GPUs were generally more power efficient than Ampere for a given performance level.
It’s likely that RDNA 3 will maintain a power efficiency advantage over the RTX 4090. Even with a performance deficit in ray tracing, AMD may be able to achieve better performance per watt.
TDPs for RDNA 3 are not confirmed yet, but should land between 300W and 400W for the top model based on leaks.
Price
With these both being premium flagship GPUs, pricing will be at the ultra high-end.
The RTX 4090 has an MSRP of $1599. This is 70% more expensive than the RTX 3090’s $1499 launch price.
AMD RDNA 3 pricing is unconfirmed. But AMD may try to undercut Nvidia, with pricing expected around $999 for the top model.
If the pricing is accurate, that would make RDNA 3 over 35% cheaper than the RTX 4090. Even with slower ray tracing, the performance per dollar value could be compelling.
Conclusion
Based on the details available so far, Nvidia’s RTX 40 series still has a clear advantage in raw ray tracing performance and quality thanks to the dedicated RT cores.
But AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture improvements should deliver significant gains in ray tracing performance versus RDNA 2, even without dedicated hardware.
RDNA 3 also appears primed to be more power efficient and cheaper than the RTX 4090. So for gamers and creators focused on the best performance per dollar in ray tracing workloads, RDNA 3 could prove to be very appealing once independent benchmarks are available.
The ray tracing playing field looks more competitive than ever, which is great news for consumers. We’ll have to wait until RDNA 3 and RTX 40 series launch later this year to declare a definitive winner in this ongoing ray tracing face-off between AMD and Nvidia.
