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. It tracks individual light rays as they bounce and interact with objects, producing lifelike reflections, refractions, shadows, and global illumination. This results in a much more immersive and visually stunning gaming experience compared to traditional rendering methods.
How Ray Tracing Works
Instead of faking light effects, ray tracing literally traces the path of light rays from the camera into the scene. When a ray hits an object, it can reflect, refract, or be absorbed, creating secondary rays that continue the process. This complex calculation accurately models how light behaves in the real world, leading to dynamic and realistic lighting, shadows with soft edges, and reflections that show objects outside the player's direct view.
The Performance Cost
Simulating light in this detailed manner is incredibly demanding on your GPU. Enabling ray tracing significantly reduces frame rates, often by 30-50% or more, depending on the game and the intensity of the ray tracing effects. To maintain playable frame rates, many players use upscaling technologies like NVIDIA's DLSS or AMD's FSR, which render the game at a lower resolution and then intelligently upscale it, recovering much of the lost performance.
Which GPUs Handle It Well?
Ray tracing requires dedicated hardware acceleration, found in modern GPUs. NVIDIA's RTX series (e.g., RTX 3060, RTX 4070, RTX 4090) and AMD's Radeon RX 6000 and 7000 series (e.g., RX 6700 XT, RX 7800 XT, RX 7900 XTX) are designed for ray tracing. Generally, higher-tier cards like the RTX 4070 Super or RX 7900 XT offer a much better experience, especially at 1440p or 4K resolutions, often making ray tracing playable without extreme performance compromises.
Is Ray Tracing Worth It?
For many, the visual upgrade is substantial, transforming games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Alan Wake 2 into breathtaking experiences. However, the performance hit means it's not for everyone, especially if you prioritize high frame rates over visual fidelity. If you have a mid-range or high-end GPU and enjoy the most realistic graphics, ray tracing, especially when paired with DLSS/FSR, can be a game-changer. For budget builds, the performance cost often outweighs the visual benefits.
Key takeaways
- •Ray tracing delivers highly realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows, but comes with a significant performance cost.
- •You need a modern GPU (NVIDIA RTX 20-series or newer, AMD RX 6000-series or newer) for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
- •Upscaling technologies like DLSS (NVIDIA) and FSR (AMD) are crucial for making ray tracing playable on most systems.
- •Higher-end GPUs (e.g., RTX 4070 Super, RX 7900 XT) offer the best ray tracing experience, especially at higher resolutions.
- •Consider your priorities: if maximum frame rates are key, you might prefer to disable ray tracing or stick to lower settings.
What to do next
- →Browse our selection of Ray Tracing capable GPUs
- →Read our guide on 'DLSS vs. FSR: Which is Better?'
- →Try the AI Build Advisor to find a PC that fits your budget and performance goals
Ready to build?
Skip the research — tell our AI your goal and budget. It picks every part for you.