Nvidia reveals RTX 50 series performance without Frame Generation

Nvidia confirms its RTX 50 series performance gains when DLSS Multi-Frame Gen is excluded

When Nvidia first revealed its GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, its performance claims were primarily based on games that support the company’s DLSS 4 technology. Unfortunately, Nvidia didn’t release much information about the performance of its new GPUs when DLSS Multi-Frame Generation wasn’t enabled.

With its DLSS Multi-Frame Generation technology, Nvidia claims its new RTX 50 series GPUs can deliver a 2x framerate boost over their predecessors. However, when this new feature is disabled, Nvidia’s RTX 50 series performance gains diminish. As can be seen in the graph below, games that lack DLSS Multi-Frame Generation support exhibit much lower performance gains.

(Nvidia’s RTX 50 series performance claims)

Nvidia RTX 50 series performance gains without Multi-Frame Generation

Below, we have estimated the performance gain of Nvidia’s RTX 50 series GPUs over their last-gen counterparts without DLSS Multi-Frame Generation enabled. We achieved this using Nvidia’s Resident Evil 4 (RT) and Horizon: Forbidden West performance data.

Computerbase created a similar chart on their website, but we felt it was missing some key information, GPU power. As such, we have recreated this chart and added some TDP information to the mix. This gives us a glimpse of the performance and power efficiency gains that Nvidia has achieved with their RTX 50 series GPUs.

For most of Nvidia’s new GPUs, performance gains of 15-20% are achieved over their last-gen counterparts. Note that we compared Nvidia’s baseline RTX 40 series GPU models, not their SUPER-series counterparts. Nvidia’s generational performance gains would be lower if we compared them to SUPER series graphics cards. Nvidia’s RTX 5090 achieved the highest generational performance gains, achieving a 33% performance boost. However, it should be noted that this increase came with a large increase in GPU TDP. Additionally, it also came with a notable increase in GPU pricing.

Increase in Shaders Increase in TDP Increase in Benchmark Performance*
RTX 5090 VS RTX 4090 +33% 575W VS 450W (+27%) +33%
RTX 5080 VS RTX 4080 +11% 360W VS 320W (+12.5%) +15%
RTX 5070 Ti VS RTX 4070 Ti +17% 300W VS 285 (+5.2%) +20%
RTX 5070 VS RTX 4070 +4% 250W VS 200W (+25%) +20%
(*Estimated Performance gains based on Nvidia benchmarks for Resident Evil 4 (RT on) and Horizon: Forbidden West (DLSS On, No Frame Generation))

Minimal efficiency gains for Blackwell?

Note that Nvidia’s performance gains correlate with the TDP and shader count increases of their new Blackwell-based GPUs. As such, it can be claimed that Nvidia has not delivered significant power efficiency gains with most of its RTX 50 series models. However, if you use DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation, power/frame efficiency improves significantly. Ultimately, Nvidia’s power efficiency gains this generation depend on how you test this metric.

You can join the discussion on Nvidia’s RTX 50 series performance gains without frame generation on the OC3D Forums.

Mark Campbell

Mark Campbell

A Northern Irish father, husband, and techie that works to turn tea and coffee into articles when he isn’t painting his extensive minis collection or using things to make other things.

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