Support NeoGAF

[LectureMaster]

Black Myth: Wukong Only Hits 29 FPS On RTX 5090 At 4K Without DLSS 4

New analysis has revealed that Black Myth: Wukong only runs at 29 FPS without using DLSS 4 on the RTX 5090 GPU.

tech4gamers.com

---

Nvidia finally announced its latest lineup of GPUs with an exclusive Multi Frame Generation feature for the flagship 5090. It seems like the company is going all-in with the upscaling tech, as the RTX 50 series seemingly fails to consistently reach 30 FPS in Black Myth: Wukong at native 4K resolution.

Analysis reveals that playing Black Myth Wukong on RTX 5090 at 4K without DLSS 4 can only get you around 29 FPS.

Why it matters: The frame rate difference when toggling DLSS 4 shows that the RTX 5090 will need Multi Frame Generation to outperform the 4090.

The video by YouTuber Frame Chasers shows Black Myth: Wukong being run with RTX 5090 during the CES 2025 event, where it barely manages to reach the 30 FPS mark while running at native 4K resolution. With DLSS 4, however, the FPS jumps to an impressive 240.
The results may seem underwhelming, but it’s important to note that full ray tracing at native resolutions is tough for modern games. Path tracing is now designed with AI features, which only upscaling technologies can handle.

Past tests have revealed that the RTX 50 series only brings limited performance gains over the RTX 40 lineup without using DLSS 4.0 and Multi Frame Generation. So, the assertions made about RTX 50’s performance simply fail to hold up, according to our report.



Moreover, we noticed the 5090 fails to achieve 60 FPS in Alan Wake 2 at 4K native. Keep in mind that the RTX 5090 costs $1,999, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has defended its exorbitant pricing.

---

 

[Justin9mm]

Garbage! Nvidia can fuck off with that price!

 

[kevboard]

and anyone playing that game maxed out at 4k is fucking retarded...
it's a terribly optimised game

 

[peish]

Zathalus I tested my 4090 in that exact area. 21fps. So 29 basically means a ~40% performance uplift. Not terrible, but not exactly that great either.

GeForce RTX 5090 is $1,999 5080 $999 5070 Ti $749 5070 $549 (Availability Starting Jan 30 for RTX 5090 and 5080)

Sure and what about the stutter on PC? Did they fix it? With a highend PC there is no stutter in Wukong for example? Normal UE5 stutter is in almost all UE5 games. On consoles as well. Shader stutter is gone in most new games.

www.neogaf.com

 

[Thebonehead]

Raster gain performance from node shrinkage is disappearing, so the new gains are in the AI / ML space which is where the investment has gone.

Wukong is a UE5 unoptimised mess so not the most ideal thing to demonstrate improvement gains.

There will be drivers to come, plus patching of UE to support the new performance features etc

I still believe 20% average which I'll be fine with.

 

[Gonzito]

This is with pathtracing right? It that is the case, then yeah makes sense to me and nothing seems alarming because pathtracing is extremely expensive

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[LectureMaster]

 

[Nickolaidas]

Yup - this is the reason I got the 4070 Ti Super instead of the 5070. 20-25% better performance for double the price (in Greece) seemed ludicrous to me when I read the spec leaks. Of course, that 20% is WITHOUT the DLSS 4, which the spec leaks never mentioned.

It is obvious that Nvidia is making the A.I. tech do the heavy lifting in the performance department. Which honestly I don't really mind, considering that every single AAA game under the sun now is using the tech.

 

[Moses85]

Well optimized Game

 

[Knightime_X]

I'll keep saying it, as graphics become insanely more demanding, it's no longer feasible for raster graphics to rely on raw power.
Nobody is going to buy a $7,000 graphics card that requires a fucking quasar as a source of energy.

Engineers realize that it's far more important for cards to work smarter, not harder.

 

[Nickolaidas]

I'll keep saying it, as graphics become insanely more demanding, it's no longer feasible for raster graphics to rely on raw power.
Nobody is going to buy a $7,000 graphics card that requires a fucking quasar as a source of energy.

Engineers realize that it's far more important for cards to work smarter, not harder.

Yup. I too, fail to understand what exactly is the people's problem with newer cards getting smarter instead of stronger.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Game destroys my 4070. I have to turn everything down to console level visuals to get 60fps.
I never bought the game just downloaded the benchmark thingy.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Wukong is truly the Crysis of our generation

 

[Thebonehead]

Wukong is truly the Crysis of our generation

Unreal engine 5 is the ultimate crisis in the real sense of the word

 

[Skifi28]

Thread title feels like ragebait.

 

[VolticArchangel]

Thread title feels like ragebait.

It really isn't when it's just straight up absolute fact.

At native 4K, with no reconstruction algorithms working in the BG or a hardware based AI upscaler, Wukong does indeed run only at 29 fps.

Be it memory leak, or just unoptimized shitcode, it is undeniable objective truth.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Considering you can get the 4090 used for half of the price of 5090, I wouldn’t be surprised if people decided to pick that up. ( Hell I am debating now if I should go 4090 or 5090 )

It’s just too much to justify the price difference now .


Still, there is a magic in owning a new tech . And 5090 is no exception.

It’s just I think the 6090 if they hit a lower nod, will destroy the 5000 series

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Goes to show competent programming and engine optimization is so much more important than theoretical performance. If I was to spend 2 grand on a GPU and got that kind of performance, I'd be mildly disappointed as a huge chunk of the appeal is to brute force everything into submission. However, obviously even the beefiest of GPU can't handle games that just are piss poorly optimized.

 

[Mister Wolf]

There isn't much incentive for a 4090 owner like myself to upgrade. Great purchase for a 3000 series owner.

 

[Nickolaidas]

Right now in Greece, there are 4090 RTX cards sold at 5K euro. That's fucking insane. How much is the 5090 RTX going to be in my country? 8 thousand fucking euros?

https://www.skroutz.gr/c/55/kartes-grafikwn/f/1525834/GeForce-RTX-4090.html

 

[Thebonehead]

Considering you can get the 4090 used for half of the price of 5090, I wouldn’t be surprised if people decided to pick that up. ( Hell I am debating now if I should go 4090 or 5090 )

It’s just too much to justify the price difference now .


Still, there is a magic in owning a new tech . And 5090 is no exception.

It’s just I think the 6090 if they hit a lower nod, will destroy the 5000 series

Die shrinkage gives you the ability to fit more CUDA or Tensor cores into the mix, but the costs involved with the new process nodes prohibits you going too far these days.

For these companies it's now a case of where do we spend our money when producing the wafer. It's all a critical balancing act due to the cost of production.

So knowing that raster is hitting inverse economies of scale the research and investment goes into the other side now on how they can make performance gains for graphics in other ways using ml / ai.

 

[SweetTooth]

Cool! some OoT performance levels, classic

 

[clarky]

It really isn't when it's just straight up absolute fact.

At native 4K, with no reconstruction algorithms working in the BG or a hardware based AI upscaler, Wukong does indeed run only at 29 fps.

Be it memory leak, or just unoptimized shitcode, it is undeniable objective truth.

We know that Wukong runs like shit. That's the case on every GPU known to man. It does run "best" on this card though, obviously.

 

[Klosshufvud]

How much uplift are we talking about with DLSS4 without the Frame Generation? And how much uplift from DLSS3 to DLSS4? I'm really curious about that.

 

[Skifi28]

It really isn't when it's just straight up absolute fact.

At native 4K, with no reconstruction algorithms working in the BG or a hardware based AI upscaler, Wukong does indeed run only at 29 fps.

Be it memory leak, or just unoptimized shitcode, it is undeniable objective truth.

Rage and clickbaits are not about facts or not, but rather how you present them.

"5090 40% faster than 4090 at Wukong"

"5090 only hits 29 FPS at Wukong"

Both statements can be factual, but one of them is almost assured to elicit a negative response to those that just read the title and don't do any research. Anyway, I do not mean to derail the thread or accuse the OP of anything, I just said how it felt to me since from the title I was expecting the 5090 to not be a significant upgrade over the 4090 without dlss, which doesn't seem to be the case at all.

 

[rofif]

Obviously. It will go to 60 with dlss2 alone

 

[Puscifer]

About to be some real clowns justifying this

 

[rofif]

Right now in Greece, there are 4090 RTX cards sold at 5K euro. That's fucking insane. How much is the 5090 RTX going to be in my country? 8 thousand fucking euros?

https://www.skroutz.gr/c/55/kartes-grafikwn/f/1525834/GeForce-RTX-4090.html

Yes probably.
How much is 5080 going to be?
It’s probably between 4090 and 5090 performance

 

[DirtInUrEye]

 

[rofif]

Play the damn game. Be it at 20 or 240 fps. It’s amazing. Unbelievable how beautiful it is and how big the game is.
and I am only playing 40fps ps5 pro mode and I am impressed. Let alone path tracing

 

[Thief1987]

expecting the 5090 to not be a significant upgrade over the 4090 without dlss

2.5 years later, 25% more expensive? How much of a simp you need to be to say that this is significant upgrade?

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Yeah just turn it down a bit, ya don't have to render ever last monkey hair ya weirdos.

 

[Skifi28]

2.5 years later, 25% more expensive? How much of a simp you need to be to say that this is significant upgrade?

You totally missed the context of what I was replying about just to personally attack me, kudos.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

About 40-50fps maxed out 4K no DLSS 4090.

Something is wrong.

 

[//DEVIL//]

About 40-50fps maxed out 4K no DLSS 4090.

Something is wrong.

Please don’t bring numbers out of your ass . Thank you very much lol

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Please don’t bring numbers out of your ass . Thank you very much lol

Um no I didn't.

 

[clarky]

About 40-50fps maxed out 4K no DLSS 4090.

Something is wrong.

You dont get 50fps native with path tracing on.

Taken from reddit but i had similar results a while back.

 

[Thief1987]

You totally missed the context of what I was replying about just to personally attack me, kudos.

I not adressed it directly to you. I apologize if you feel like that. Though I'm not sure what context I'm missing.

 

[Zathalus]

About 40-50fps maxed out 4K no DLSS 4090.

Something is wrong.

With path tracing enabled? Check that your rendering resolution is 100%. I think it can default to 50%.

 

[acm2000]

Zathalus I tested my 4090 in that exact area. 21fps. So 29 basically means a ~40% performance uplift. Not terrible, but not exactly that great either.

GeForce RTX 5090 is $1,999 5080 $999 5070 Ti $749 5070 $549 (Availability Starting Jan 30 for RTX 5090 and 5080)

Sure and what about the stutter on PC? Did they fix it? With a highend PC there is no stutter in Wukong for example? Normal UE5 stutter is in almost all UE5 games. On consoles as well. Shader stutter is gone in most new games.

www.neogaf.com

40% in a poorly optimized ue5 game using path tracing isn't too bad, but Def not worth it for $2000

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

With path tracing enabled? Check that your rendering resolution is 100%. I think it can default to 50%.

That was it. Duh

 

[clarky]

40% in a poorly optimized ue5 game using path tracing isn't too bad, but Def not worth it for $2000

40% would be a decent upgrade if true. I'd bite if that was the case. I don't think that will hold true though unfortunately.

 

[genesisblock]

All this tells me is that we've reached the limit of Moore's Law for chips. And without DLSS software, you're never gonna get the results required from just raw power alone if you want to make the best looking games in the market.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

I was expecting 40% better performance in raster, but this game uses PT, so I thought the improved RT cores would double the RTX4090's performance and get like 40-50fps, but it cant even doubly my RTX4080S (20fps).

40% in a poorly optimized ue5 game using path tracing isn't too bad, but Def not worth it for $2000

The game is very demanding but also very scalable. I can play this game maxed out at 1440p even without DLSS, and with DLSS and FG the game is flying. With PT medium at 1440p I get only 3% worse performance compared to lumen (123fps vs 127fps), that's almost nothing while the lighting quality looks much better. IMO Wukong is one or the best optimized PT games.

 

[//DEVIL//]

I was expecting 40% better performance in raster, but this game uses PT, so I thought the improved RT cores would double the RTX4090's performance and get like 40-50fps, but it cant even doubly my RTX4080S (20fps).


The game is very demanding but also very scalable. I can play this game maxed out at 1440p even without DLSS, and with DLSS and FG the game is flying. With PT medium at 1440p I get only 3% performance compared to lumen (software RT), so IMO Wukong is one or the best optimized PT games.

The thing is, with supposedly better ray tracing cores, the 5090 is 30 to 40% better. Same as far cry from the chart. But that boost is because of better ray tracing cores. If the game wasn’t using ray tracing, that 40% will drop drastically.

In pure resta without ray tracing cores, we will be lucky if we get 30% boost at this rate

 

[winjer]

Worst yet, is that the 5080 is supposedly only 5% faster than the 4080.
No wonder Nvidia is pushing the Frame Generation to 4X to pad their performance numbers, when this generation seems to be such a small uptick.

 

[reektann]

I am waiting to see what 4090 can do with DLSS 4

 

[ChoosableOne]

Can I have some proof for poor optimization pls?

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Black Myth: Wukong Only Hits 29 FPS On RTX 5090 At 4K Without DLSS 4

New analysis has revealed that Black Myth: Wukong only runs at 29 FPS without using DLSS 4 on the RTX 5090 GPU.

tech4gamers.com

---

Nvidia finally announced its latest lineup of GPUs with an exclusive Multi Frame Generation feature for the flagship 5090. It seems like the company is going all-in with the upscaling tech, as the RTX 50 series seemingly fails to consistently reach 30 FPS in Black Myth: Wukong at native 4K resolution.

Analysis reveals that playing Black Myth Wukong on RTX 5090 at 4K without DLSS 4 can only get you around 29 FPS.

Why it matters: The frame rate difference when toggling DLSS 4 shows that the RTX 5090 will need Multi Frame Generation to outperform the 4090.

The video by YouTuber Frame Chasers shows Black Myth: Wukong being run with RTX 5090 during the CES 2025 event, where it barely manages to reach the 30 FPS mark while running at native 4K resolution. With DLSS 4, however, the FPS jumps to an impressive 240.
The results may seem underwhelming, but it’s important to note that full ray tracing at native resolutions is tough for modern games. Path tracing is now designed with AI features, which only upscaling technologies can handle.

Past tests have revealed that the RTX 50 series only brings limited performance gains over the RTX 40 lineup without using DLSS 4.0 and Multi Frame Generation. So, the assertions made about RTX 50’s performance simply fail to hold up, according to our report.



Moreover, we noticed the 5090 fails to achieve 60 FPS in Alan Wake 2 at 4K native. Keep in mind that the RTX 5090 costs $1,999, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has defended its exorbitant pricing.

---

You seem GPU illiterate. The issue isn't the 5090 or Blackwell it's node shrinks, the death of Moore's law and dennard scaling. What's affecting the 5090 is affecting all GPUs including the PS5 Pro, the 5070 and AMD's RDNA4. Raster is dead, the present and future is AI rendering and RT.