Shadow of the Tomb Raider DXR Performance Analysis

Graphics Card Test System

• Motherboard – Aorus Z390 Gaming Master
• Processor – Intel Core i9-9900K (Stock)
• RAM – Crucial Ballistix Gaming 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHz
• CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15S
• Power Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W
• Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB
• Chassis – Thermaltake Core P5 TG
• Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit
• Monitor – AOC 28-Inch 4K Gaming Monitor

Gaming

To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. With our previous reviews, we used the “Medium or Normal” preset. However, as GPUs get faster, we’ve now moved that up to “High” profiles for all games, at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, as are FreeSync and G-Sync technologies or similar. Graphics card power usage set to optimised or balance, and the system power mode set to High Performance within Windows and the available GPU driver software. Identical settings are used for all resolutions unless otherwise stated.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was benchmarked using the game’s built-in benchmarking tool. The high profile was used for frame rate testing with V-Sync off. Furthermore, the same test is then repeated with high Ray Tracing enabled, then once more with DLSS enabled. Please note that not all GPUs support DLSS at all resolutions, these will show as a “zero” score on their respective charts.

DLSS

DLSS results were run but then discarded for 1080p. The game either wouldn’t run at 1920 x 1080p, as it changed to 1920 x 1200p instead. Furthermore, the performance was near identical to it being off, telling me the game doesn’t support this resolution on all cards with DLSS. Plus, it looked like hot trash while running, and no one is doing this with their new RTX cards… so, I ditched 1080p DLSS testing.

Furthermore, the RTX 2080 did great too, scoring above 60 FPS even at 4K with the same settings. Even at 1080p and 1440p, it’s performance is well suited to high frame rate displays.