I recently upgraded from an RTX 3060 to an RTX 4070 Super, replaced my Ryzen 7 2700X with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, moved to DDR5 memory, and upgraded from a standard 1440p monitor to a 3440×1440 ultrawide display. In most newer AAA games, I usually get around 100–120 FPS with DLSS Quality and Frame Generation enabled, but turning on ray tracing drops performance to roughly 30–50 FPS. CPU usage stays around 30–40%. Is this expected because of the ultrawide resolution and demanding settings, or could there be a power or hardware issue? My power supply is rated at 650W, while a component calculator estimates the system uses under 500W.
5 Answers
DLSS was designed in part to help offset the cost of ray tracing, but it cannot fully eliminate the performance hit. Try DLSS Balanced or Performance, and reduce a few settings instead of using the maximum preset. Since your VRAM usage is already reaching roughly 9–12GB in some games, lowering texture quality or RT quality may prevent major drops.
That performance is generally expected. A 3440×1440 ultrawide renders about 35% more pixels than regular 2560×1440, so it is considerably more demanding. It is also close to 4K in total pixel count. Ray tracing can reduce performance heavily, especially in newer AAA games, even with DLSS and Frame Generation enabled.
The 650W power supply is probably fine as long as it is a decent-quality unit and the system is stable. Run a benchmark such as 3DMark and compare the result with other systems using the same GPU. Also test several games, since some titles are much more demanding than others. Around 30–50 FPS with heavy ray tracing at this resolution can be completely normal, particularly when using near-maximum settings.
Check GPU utilization and VRAM usage while playing. If the GPU is sitting around 80–100%, the graphics card is simply the limiting component, not the CPU. Your 12GB of VRAM can also become a problem with ultra settings, ray tracing, Frame Generation, and a 3440×1440 resolution. If usage approaches the limit, lower textures, shadows, reflections, or other demanding settings.
Most games use around 9–10GB of VRAM, while a few newer ones reach 11.7GB. I normally run DLSS Quality with Frame Generation and settings near maximum. The 4070 Super was an inexpensive upgrade from my 3060, so I may eventually upgrade again if I want higher ray-traced performance at this resolution.
That makes sense. The 4070 Super is a strong card for standard 1440p, but 3440×1440 with ray tracing is a much tougher workload. Reducing a couple of settings or using a more aggressive DLSS mode should help more than changing the CPU or power supply.