3 reasons why ray tracing will remain pointless in 2024 (2024)

Key Takeaways

  • Ray tracing is still not worth it due to the high cost of GPUs capable of running compatible games.
  • Ray tracing is limited to a small niche of gamers who can afford the expensive GPUs that support it.
  • Despite advancements, mainstream hardware is still incapable of delivering a smooth and stunning ray-traced experience.

Nvidia debuted real-time ray tracing with its RTX 2000 Turing GPUs in 2018. While it was limited to a handful of games and the implementation was shoddy, Nvidia is now celebrating around 500 games and apps that support ray tracing. This number might seem huge, and even if you aren't a prolific gamer, you'd agree that ray tracing is far more prevalent and evolved than it was five years ago.

Unfortunately, the promise of ray tracing becoming the de facto gaming standard hasn't panned out, at least not yet. Sure, the PS5 and Xbox Series X now support ray-traced reflections in many titles, but whether it's consoles or PC, ray tracing comes with too many issues to be worthwhile. If you have deep pockets, you can buy the few graphics cards worthy of Cyberpunk 2077's path-tracing mode. But, for everyone else, ray tracing isn't there yet.

3 I rather prefer #RTXOff

The performance hit isn't worth it

3 reasons why ray tracing will remain pointless in 2024 (1)

BenQ Mobiuz EX3415R

Ray tracing was a gimmick on first-gen RTX cards. The RTX 2000 series, as a whole, left a bad taste in people's mouths. Gamers weren't too keen on shelling out the big bucks just for the RTX tax. Even today, as the RTX 4000 series (with the much-improved Ada Lovelace architecture) is getting popular, ray tracing still demands a colossal cut out of your FPS to work — even on the best gaming GPUs.

You could argue that using the latest-gen cards in older RTX titles will give you a great experience, but I'm buying the latest product to use in the latest titles. Even on an RTX 3080, I need to make numerous compromises if I want 60FPS+ in Cyberpunk 2077, and that's without path tracing and with DLSS enabled.

Then, upscaling techniques are left to pick up the slack when the GPUs aren't delivering playable framerates. I'd appreciate it if I could enjoy ray tracing at my monitor's native resolution without AI trickery and fake frames. If I can't get near 100FPS on my 144Hz monitor, even with a high-end GPU, I'd rather turn ray tracing off. But I won't be happy about it.

2 Reserved for a small niche of gamers

Real ray tracing is a luxury

Games like Cyberpunk 2077 promised a lot when it came to ray-traced visuals. But the path tracing mode only just came to the game in 2023, and what we saw was quite different from what we got. Even if you set aside fully ray-traced games, an actually enjoyable ray-tracing experience is limited to a handful of super-expensive GPUs, pricing out the majority of gamers.

The latest titles like Alan Wake 2 are breathtaking only on the RTX 4000 series GPUs that can actually support their path tracing effects. Budget GPUs are left to run things at 1080p with every fancy graphical setting turned off. And these budget GPUs are the ones that most gamers use, as is evident from the Steam Hardware Survey. The RTX 3060 might be the most popular GPU, but no one's brave enough to run ray tracing on it.

If you're impressed with Nvidia's relentless marketing around #RTXOn, you better be ready to spend at least $800 on an RTX 4070 Ti. On anything less powerful than that, you'll feel shortchanged and left with a sub-par visual experience.

1 It's not maturing as fast as it should

No "real-time" ray tracing

3 reasons why ray tracing will remain pointless in 2024 (2)

As GPUs capable of ray tracing get more powerful, games get more demanding. This results in a maintained status as gamers must choose between performance and visuals. Even after five years, we haven't gotten to a point where mainstream graphics cards can deliver a smooth, stable, and stunning ray-traced experience.

Nvidia has more or less cornered the market when it comes to ray-traced graphics, with AMD still lagging behind in ray tracing as well as FSR performance. The industry sentiment on ray tracing went from being an Nvidia gimmick to a prohibitively expensive, and therefore pointless, feature. If only 3 to 4% of desktop gamers can actually experience the brilliant ray tracing visuals they see advertised, then it's a sorry state for the industry. And I've included the RTX 4070 in that percentage. Ouch!

Should we wait or abandon ray tracing?

Ray tracing is a brilliant innovation for gaming graphics. Compared to rasterization, it can help developers deliver a significantly more realistic-looking experience. However, fully ray-traced games running on mainstream hardware still need years of work. With Nvidia and AMD turning high-end GPUs into a luxury commodity, the average gamer either needs to abandon the idea of ray tracing or wait for a long time to join the RTX club. And there's no guarantee that will ever happen since games are getting more and more difficult to run.

  • Computing
  • Computing Editorial
  • PC

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3 reasons why ray tracing will remain pointless in 2024 (2024)

FAQs

3 reasons why ray tracing will remain pointless in 2024? ›

Ray tracing is still not worth it due to the high cost of GPUs capable of running compatible games. Ray tracing is limited to a small niche of gamers who can afford the expensive GPUs that support it. Despite advancements, mainstream hardware is still incapable of delivering a smooth and stunning ray-traced experience.

What are the disadvantages of ray tracing? ›

A major disadvantage of ray tracing is that its computation complexity is about square of object number. More object on the scene, much more time needed for rendering. Some optimal methods are available to enhance efficient of ray tracing.

What are the problems of ray tracing? ›

One of the main problems with ray tracing is that it requires all the scene geometry to be stored in memory while the image is being rendered.

What is the future of ray tracing? ›

As hardware continues to evolve, we can expect ray tracing to become a standard feature in future games and possibly other real-time applications. However, its success will ultimately depend on industry support and how well it's implemented in software.

Does anyone actually care about ray tracing? ›

For single player games it's probably still desireable. Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing looks amazing and enhances the gaming experience. Other than framerate issues, there's no drawback to having it on. For single player games, immersion is important.

Does ray tracing hurt performance? ›

On Pascal-architecture GPUs, we see that ray tracing and all other graphics rendering tasks are handled by FP32 Pascal shader cores. This takes longer to perform, meaning the gamer encounters a lower framerate.

What is the main disadvantage of Xray? ›

Ionizing radiation is a form of radiation that has enough energy to potentially cause damage to DNA. Risks from exposure to ionizing radiation include: a small increase in the possibility that a person exposed to X-rays will develop cancer later in life.

What are the effects of ray tracing? ›

Ray tracing can create photorealistic images. In addition to the high degree of realism, ray tracing can simulate the effects of a camera due to depth of field and aperture shape (in this case a hexagon).

Does ray tracing lower FPS? ›

DOES RAY TRACING REDUCE FPS? Yes, enabling ray tracing will reduce FPS. How much frame loss occurs is affected by the hardware capabilities of the console or PC you are playing on. You can improve this by using a GPU that supports ray tracing, as well as using the best hardware within your budget in your gaming PC.

How realistic is ray tracing? ›

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that can realistically simulate the lighting of a scene and its objects by rendering physically accurate reflections, refractions, shadows, and indirect lighting.

Does 2050 have ray tracing? ›

The card also has 32 raytracing acceleration cores. NVIDIA has paired 4 GB GDDR6 memory with the GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile, which are connected using a 64-bit memory interface.

How long will RTX last? ›

Nvidia's premium RTX 3080 is built to readily handle heavy 1440p and 4K gaming for 5+ years. Even the professional Quadro workstation cards can surpass 10 years through careful usage. But cheaper models like the RTX 3050 trim costs using components that may only last 3-4 years for 1080p gaming before falling behind.

What is next after ray tracing? ›

Real-time path tracing is the next step towards creating photorealistic, physically accurate graphics in games. For many years, path tracing seemed to be an impossible dream for developers, since it was prohibitively expensive for even the fastest GPUs.

Is ray tracing too taxing? ›

However, video games have only recently been able to take advantage of it due to advances in PC gaming; and even now there are certain limitations, as it's far too taxing for current graphics cards to pull off a fully ray-traced game in the same vein as movie and TV show CGI.

Is there something better than ray tracing? ›

Path tracing offers a better-looking, less intense form of dynamic lighting, and is overall, arguably the better solution.

Why does ray tracing not work? ›

1.1: You need a Ray Tracing capable graphics card:

The Ray Tracing Effect requires a real-time ray tracing capable graphics card. Most of the graphics cards released after 2018 should include this feature.

What are the disadvantages of ray casting? ›

One potential disadvantage is the potential for image artifacts, although the presented technique for empty space leaping aims to minimize this issue . Another disadvantage is the restriction imposed by current GPU architectures, which may limit the performance and capabilities of raycast interaction .

Does ray tracing increase or decrease FPS? ›

DOES RAY TRACING REDUCE FPS? Yes, enabling ray tracing will reduce FPS. How much frame loss occurs is affected by the hardware capabilities of the console or PC you are playing on. You can improve this by using a GPU that supports ray tracing, as well as using the best hardware within your budget in your gaming PC.

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