What is Ray Tracing?
Ray tracing is an advanced rendering technique that simulates the physical behavior of light to create incredibly realistic visuals in games. Instead of faking lighting effects, it traces individual light rays from a virtual camera into the scene, calculating how they interact with objects. This results in highly accurate reflections, refractions, shadows, and global illumination, making game worlds look far more immersive and lifelike.
How Ray Tracing Works (Simply)
Imagine a flashlight beam (a 'ray') shining from your eye into a game world. Ray tracing tracks where that beam goes, what it hits, and how light bounces off or passes through surfaces. If it hits a mirror, the ray reflects; if it hits a window, it refracts. This complex calculation is performed for millions of rays per frame, creating a highly accurate representation of how light would behave in the real world, leading to stunning visual fidelity.
The Performance Cost
Simulating light in this detailed way is incredibly demanding on your GPU. Enabling ray tracing can significantly drop your frame rates, often by 30-50% or more, depending on the game and the intensity of the ray tracing effects. This is why technologies like DLSS (NVIDIA) and FSR (AMD) are crucial, as they use AI upscaling to recover performance lost to ray tracing, allowing you to enjoy both high fidelity and playable frame rates.
Which GPUs Handle It Best?
NVIDIA's RTX series GPUs (RTX 20-series, 30-series, and 40-series) were the first to feature dedicated RT Cores designed specifically for ray tracing calculations, giving them a significant advantage. AMD's Radeon RX 6000 and RX 7000 series GPUs also support ray tracing, with the RX 7000 series showing substantial improvements over its predecessors. Generally, the higher-tier cards like an RTX 4070 Super or RX 7800 XT and above offer the best ray tracing experience, especially when paired with upscaling.
Is Ray Tracing Worth It?
For many, the visual upgrade ray tracing provides is a game-changer, especially in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, or Control, where it dramatically enhances atmosphere and realism. However, if you prioritize raw frame rate above all else, or if you're on a budget GPU, you might find the performance hit too severe. It's a premium feature that truly shines on higher-end hardware, often best enjoyed at 1440p or 4K resolutions with upscaling enabled.
Key takeaways
- •Ray tracing makes games look incredibly realistic by simulating light's physical behavior.
- •It's very demanding on your GPU and will significantly reduce frame rates.
- •NVIDIA RTX GPUs (especially 40-series) generally offer the best ray tracing performance due to dedicated hardware.
- •AMD RX 7000 series GPUs also provide good ray tracing, but often lag slightly behind comparable NVIDIA cards.
- •Use DLSS (NVIDIA) or FSR (AMD) to mitigate performance loss when enabling ray tracing.
What to do next
- →Browse our selection of NVIDIA RTX 40-series GPUs
- →Compare AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards
- →Read our guide: 'DLSS vs. FSR: Which Upscaling Tech is Right for You?'
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