GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2024

With new products from both AMD and Nvidia, the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) industry experienced some significant changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023. This blog post will examine the most recent GPU benchmarks and the new GPU hierarchy according to 2024 real-world gaming performance.?

Ahead of schedule, Nvidia and AMD introduced the RX 4070 XT and RX 7900 GRE, respectively, while Nvidia released the RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super. These GPU releases, which are significant due to their advanced features and improved performance, were probably the last 'refresh' of the current generation. Until the autumn, when the AMD RDNA 4 GPU, Intel Battlemage, and Nvidia Blackwell RTX 50-series GPUs are expected to come (though AMD may not debut until 2025), we don't foresee any further disruptions in the GPU hierarchy.?

Our commitment to providing accurate and reliable GPU benchmarks has led us to update our testing process. We've added additional titles, and even moved to a different platform. After experiencing issues, we decided to return our Core i9-13900K and are now looking forward to Zen 5 and Arrow Lake. In the meantime, we've conducted extensive testing on the 13900K testbed with a wider range of games for our latest assessments; the results are shown in the charts at the bottom of the page.?

First is our whole GPU hierarchy utilizing standard rendering (also known as rasterization); our ray tracing GPU benchmarking structure is located below that. Naturally, they need a GPU that can do ray tracing, so the only ones that work are the AMD RX 7000/6000 series, the Intel Arc, and the Nvidia RTX cards. None of the results were obtained with DLSS, FSR, or XeSS enabled on the different cards, as we wanted to provide a benchmark based on the raw performance of the GPUs without any additional enhancements.?

The latest iteration of Nvidia's RTX 40-series, powered by the Ada Lovelace architecture, brings new capabilities like Nvidia DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction (currently only utilized in a select game) and DLSS 3 Frame iteration to all RTX cards. The RX 7000-series, powered by AMD's RDNA 3 architecture, completes the product stack with seven desktop cards. Intel's Arc Alchemist architecture, while more of a rival to the midrange models from the previous generation, marks a significant step forward in the dedicated GPU party.?

Our 2020-2021 benchmark suite, which includes all GPUs from the previous generation running our earlier test suite on a Core i9-9900K testbed, is located on page two. It has not been updated. We also offer the previous GPU hierarchy arranged by theoretical performance (without benchmarks) for comparison.?

The following tables, which display the results exclusively based on our performance-based GPU gaming benchmarks, are set to run at 1080p "medium" for the DXR suite and 1080p "ultra" for the main suite. The ranks above do not account for features, pricing, graphics card power consumption, or overall efficiency. As of right now, an Alder Lake Core i9-12900K testbed is used in the 2024 findings. Let's tackle the tables and benchmarks now.?

What Is a GPU?

A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a fast-calculating electrical circuit for mathematics. Similar mathematical procedures must be applied to a big dataset for computing activities like machine learning (ML), graphics rendering, and video editing. A GPU's architecture enables it to operate in parallel on many data values, enabling it to process numerous compute-intensive activities more efficiently.?

GPU Benchmark Ranking 2024?

The GPU benchmark results let us evaluate graphics cards according to their actual performance rather than specifications. In addition to benchmarks from well-known titles, synthetic benchmarks put the GPU under various stresses.?

GPU Comparison and Structure

Using benchmarks from a range of titles and screen sizes helps us understand what to anticipate regarding gaming performance from various GPUs. Here are a few of the most significant benchmark findings:

Important Rasterization Benchmark Findings and Key Lessons

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• Many competent mid-range cards, such as the RTX 3060, can produce over 60 frames per second in most games while playing at 1080p. Frame rates may be increased to 240 FPS with high-end GPUs.?
• These days, most current GPUs can easily handle 1440p. The RX 6800 and RTX 3070 mid-range graphics cards provide fluid 60+ frames per second.?
• High-end GPUs such as the 3080 Ti and 6950 XT perform very well in 4K, with many games surpassing 60 frames per second at maximum settings.?
• Thus, rasterization speed is significantly improved across the board for graphics card tiers. Since 4 K resolutions are more widely used, more gamers may experience 4K quality images without sacrificing frame rates.?

Ray Tracing GPU Performance Chart, 2024 Edition

Advanced lighting methods like ray tracing significantly improve visual quality but negatively impact frame rates. Based on benchmarks from titles like Cyberpunk 2077, let's examine the GPU hierarchy for ray tracing performance in 2024.?

• Ray tracing performance is where Nvidia definitely outperforms AMD. Important notes:
• In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 3070 allows for complete ray tracing and averages just over 60 frames per second at 1440p. It symbolizes the beginning of fluid 60-frame-per-second ray-traced gameplay.?
• More advanced 3000 series GPUs, like the RTX 3080 and 3090, can achieve extremely reasonable frame rates in 1440p and 4K using ray tracing.
• Therefore, Team Green maintains its lead in ray tracing. Only its top-tier GPUs can achieve passable frame rates with complete ray tracing. Because of their enhanced RT cores, Ampere GPUs outperform Turing in ray tracing workloads by a wide margin.?

The GPU Benchmark Hierarchy for Ray Tracing on Tom's Hardware

A comprehensive GPU benchmark hierarchy encompassing a wide range of GPUs is available on Tom's Hardware for ray tracing. The graphics cards are arranged as follows:

• The 6700 XT offers good performance for 1080p ray tracing, but the RTX 3070 hits a sweet spot of 60+ frames per second.
• Only very high-end GPUs, such as the RTX 3080 Ti and higher, can reliably achieve 60 frames per second in a range of ray-traced games at 1440p.
• Top-tier GPUs, such as the RTX 3090, 3090 Ti, and 6950 XT, compete to provide the best 4K ray tracing performance.
• Because of its superior dedicated hardware for ray-tracing workloads, Nvidia will continue to provide noticeably improved performance for premium ray-traced images in 2024.

GPU Benchmarks: Specific Game Rankings

The performance is summarized in the tables above, but we also have individual game charts for the standard and ray tracing test suites available for anyone who would want to see them. These charts only include more current GPUs since anything older would become quite confusing. Since our most recent tests are more relevant (but have yet to be done on many of the older GPUs indicated in the tables), they are also utilizing our new test PC, which somewhat alters the performance from the preceding table.

Conclusion

Over the last year, new high-end and mid-range launches from AMD and Nvidia have sculpted intriguing advances in the GPU scene. New benchmarks for rasterization and ray tracing make it easier to understand the hierarchy of graphics card performance for gaming in 2024.

Nvidia continues to provide extremely good GPUs in different price ranges and maintains its performance lead in ray tracing. However, AMD is completely competitive across a range of rasterization settings.

Even mid-range choices, like the RTX 3060, provide extremely high frame rates for 1080p gaming. Playing games at 1440p is becoming quite common, and many players may enjoy a fluid 60 frames per second even when their graphic settings are fully adjusted. Top products from Nvidia and AMD now look amazing in 4K.

The updated hardware has also significantly increased frame rates for ray tracing. If you have the correct card, you may access a new level of graphic quality in numerous games.

Concerning all the most recent gaming benchmarks across resolutions and use scenarios, we hope you found this in-depth analysis of GPU performance to be enjoyable. Please share your thoughts with us on the 2024 GPU landscape!