When the announcement of Nvidia’s RTX 3090 dropped with promises of consistent 4K at 60fps (frames per second), questions had already formed regarding just how far the card’s performance could be pushed. As it turns out, benchmarking tests may have finally given you a reason to purchase an 8K TV or monitor.
YouTuber ‘Bang4BuckPC Gamer’ showcased Crysis 3, The Witcher 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Final Fantasy XV running on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, with all games achieving 30fps in 8K. Given these are still graphically demanding and make frequent appearances on lists for ‘most beautiful games’, this achievement is no small feat.
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Breathtaking graphics in your favorite games
For Horizon Zero Dawn, the YouTuber used a mix of High and Ultra settings and achieved 30fps, with some minor dips to 27fps. For Final Fantasy XV, the game ran with DLSS and 35-40fps in native 8K (though Nvidia VXAO had to be disabled, all other options were left enabled).
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 is also able to run The Witcher 3 on Ultra settings in 8K with more than 35fps, an incredible achievement when you bear in mind that this game runs with Nvidia Hairworks (a graphical effect that adds realistic hair to characters, and which can take a big toll on even the most powerful graphics cards). Finally, Crysis 3 ran with more than 40fps in 8K on High settings. The game does have an option for Very High, but this proved to be especially taxing.
It barely feels like time has gone by since 4K quality was an unachievable aspiration. Now that we’ve scaled that mountain, 8K feels less of an empty promise on Nvidia’s part, despite questions as to whether the jump in resolution is actually worth the deep pockets required to achieve it.
Still, on the face of it – with the right display to hand and a hefty chunk of cash – the RTX 3090 is truly capable of 8K in our favorite last-gen games, and we’re doubtless not alone in that we can’t wait to actually see the results ourselves.