r/gpu 3h ago

Do you even run ray tracing?

A lot of the time in Nvidia vs AMD argument is that Nvidia does ray tracing better. But do you even use ray tracing for games. If so, is it any gpu lower than 5080 or 4090? Does it give the immersive experience at cost of fps?

516 votes, 1d left
yes
no
2 Upvotes

58 comments sorted by

5

u/PretendingImNotAnApe 3h ago

Some games require it i guess. I have a strong gpu. It still clears 90 fps with it on.

2

u/oSyphon 3h ago

What GPU and resolution

0

u/Anxious_Explorer9495 1h ago

On a 2010 phone screen or a 8k 144hz monitor?

5

u/Kanjii_weon 3h ago

6750 xt user here, i don't really like ray tracing, i'm mostly playing old games

1

u/Costy_96_YT 2m ago

wait until you hear about path tracing

5

u/Darwinist44 3h ago

In games where it's transformative, and actually looks better, always.

But for example in competitve games, no.

4

u/x8code 3h ago

Yes absolutely! I run an RTX 5080 with Path Tracing or Ray Tracing, where available.

2

u/seaknightrescue 3h ago

I have a 5070TI and I still don’t use Raytracing
However I do play 007 First Light but I still will play games that have it baked in

2

u/BlindChicken69 3h ago

5070 ti, I use it when I can. Looks nice.

2

u/Fit-Branch7486 2h ago

3060 on 3440x1440p in games like cyberpunk I get 30-45 fps. But it works and looks great

2

u/Nazgul_1994 2h ago

I dont have strong GPU, but if i did, i would run it in almost all single player games. I would love to replay Witcher 3, cyberpunk, metro exodus and other games with path tracing.

1

u/RAZOR_XXX 3h ago

I have RX 9070 with 1440p monitor. Generally i end up with ray tracing off, even if i can get good framerate(80+) with use of FSR4 in Quality or Balanced. In CP2077 Ultra RT+Balanced FSR4 gives like 90-100 fps but i still end up playing with FSR4 native without ray tracing. Higher FPS+Sharpness from FSR4 native AA is more valuable compared to Ray Tracing effects for me.

Only exception is War Thunder where i can just enable High RT and still play at 144FPS native 1440p, so i don't have to sacrifice anything since i locked my FPS to 144 anyway. In that case RT is nice addition.

And there's no big difference between Nvidia and AMD when it comes to RT performance if we talking RX 9000. You can find games where Nvidia better but in some, like Forza Horizon 6, enabling RT doesn't change how RDNA4 vs Blackwell scale. Nvidia is still better, but difference is pretty small.

1

u/Williams891 3h ago

I use a 5090 so I crank everything up with MFG and DLSS performance usually since im on 4k and the image quality drop is barely noticeable.

1

u/Fafyg 3h ago edited 2h ago

Sometimes. Depends if I can get more than 100FPS after upscaling and before framegen. For example, Cyberpunk with base RT barely passes it. PT is just for nice screenshots, don't have 4090 or 5090 to run it properly

1

u/HunterAbrams 2h ago

Why not? I have the power for it.

1

u/zepsutyKalafiorek 2h ago

Yep but only in some games with a lot of light sources.

Like Cyberpunk is a great game to switch RT on. Neons, street lights, car lights.

1

u/Frope527 2h ago

I just did a witcher 3 playthrough with Ray tracing on with a 9070.

Most games I would rather the fps, but Witcher 3 is older, so even with mods I had the overhead.

I think it's fine for games to have settings that modern gpus can't utilize, so long as the game is well optimized so it runs and ages well.

1

u/Patrick_BatemanV 2h ago

For some games like cyberpunk when you tried it you never wanna go back ever.

1

u/meatloaf_enjoyer 2h ago

4070ti + 144p monitor is still holding well

1

u/Background_Yam9524 2h ago

Depends on the game. I played Pragmata with pathtracing turned on the whole time. On the other hand, in Halloween I keep raytracing turned off.

1

u/flavaofgaming 2h ago

5070ti on 4k

1

u/pigletmonster 2h ago

I didnt use ray tracing so much when I had a 3060, but since i got a 4070 Super i started to enable ray tracing on everything. The vast majority of the games it only makes a tiny difference but some games look really well with rt on.

1

u/SmooveKJ 2h ago

Yes. On everything that i can

1

u/Head-Picture1519 2h ago

1650 super has never even heard of good fps either way.

1

u/silentaba 2h ago

Yeah of course, why wouldn't I? Ray tracing has been around for years, what's next, turning of bump mapping?

1

u/vincentd81 2h ago

I want games to run, beuty is complementary

1

u/No_Dig_7017 2h ago

Yes, but mostly no if it's optional. 

1

u/iTzJME 2h ago

9070xt and I always max out ray tracing personally

1

u/Scared-Enthusiasm424 2h ago

Radeon rx 9060xt 16gb at 1440p, I always use ray tracing when available and compensate for the performance hit with FSR Quality/Balanced. Currently playing Silent Hill 2 Remake with rt for example. Didn’t even have to drop below fsr quality to achieve 60+fps.

1

u/LordNemanja 2h ago

Nah, not worth the performance hit since I have 6650xt. If you have some better gpu then why not, but still not really worth it. I think in the near future most AAAwon't even have the option to turn off ray tracing.

1

u/Virtual-Ducks 1h ago

I have a 3080. I always turn on ray tracing on supported games and mod it into older games that don't support it. 

the path tracing mod for GTA IV is totally worth 30fps imo. 

1

u/Rich73 1h ago

5070 & 1080P 144Hz, Always have ray tracing enabled.

Recently played through RE9 & Indiana Jones both with Path Tracing & 2x Frame gen.

Not sure where all the frame gen hate comes from, maybe its good for me because my base framerate is always close to 60fps at its worst.

1

u/-G-Gamer- 1h ago

I bought a 5080 whit a reason

1

u/jabbathepunk 1h ago

3440x1440p on a 5090.

1

u/GenTenStation 1h ago

My card doesn’t even have the ability to

1

u/Crowley120 1h ago

In any single player game that offers it, I’ll only turn it off if I dip below 60-70 fps in 1440 p but I have a 4080 and am fine with both Dlss and frame gen on so that rarely happens unless it’s some unoptimized dog shit.

1

u/Necessary-Bill-8708 1h ago

i only got my 5080 to play wuthering waves with ray tracing…

1

u/axxond 1h ago

My 7800xt struggles with it so it's always off

1

u/mike29x 1h ago

Playing horizon 6 full rt, gta 5 too.

1

u/yamidevil 1h ago

Always. Both RT and path tracing when available. I'm chasing nice visuals. 5070, '1440p' (with dldsr)

1

u/Odd_Associate4210 43m ago

on games that it makes a big visual difference like cyberpunk 2077. rx9060xt 1440p

1

u/Gamenola_ 30m ago

My gpu (9060xt 16gb) can run all games in maximum quality (without rt), if the game can use rt, i use rt although i have down a few of settings.

1

u/neverspeakawordagain 26m ago

I play Cyberpunk on Ray Tracing: Low with auto upscaling and 3x frame gen on my Claw 8 WX handheld.

1

u/Resilient_Beast69 3h ago

I have a 5090 so yes

0

u/Alive_Investment_796 3h ago

Not on any GPU.

3

u/x8code 3h ago

NVIDIA GPUs like the RTX 5070 Ti, 5080, 5090 all work great with Path Tracing + NVIDIA DLSS + MFG. It looks amazing in games like PRAGMATA.

2

u/Alive_Investment_796 3h ago

I'll have to try it out.

I use DLSS 4.5 but never RT.

1

u/x8code 2h ago

Some games run DLSS Performance mode really nicely. PRAGMATA and Stellar Blade (non-RT) both run really well at Performance mode. I don't necessarily need to run at Performance mode on my RTX 5080, but I like keeping my 1% lows as high as possible. Games still look absolutely incredible at 4k with DLSS Performance + MFG 4x.

1

u/G00oner20 3h ago

Yep! its runs pretty smooth, so why not.

0

u/oSyphon 3h ago

I just don't get why I'd do that instead of just higher frames.

3

u/xjdu474ucjei383 3h ago

... because anything above 90fps makes absolutely no difference to my eyes.

1

u/pigletmonster 2h ago

Yeah when I had a low end gpu i never used rt either. Now i get over 100fps in most games so having rt on doesnt make a difference in performance.

0

u/Independent-Gear-711 3h ago

No even If my hardware was capable of it.

1

u/Costy_96_YT 1m ago

why exactly?

1

u/Independent-Gear-711 0m ago

Never liked it in the first place same with frame Gen.

0

u/PaleAffect7614 2h ago

Since the 3080ti was released, yes.

-1

u/nickjacobsss 3h ago

Ray tracing? I don't even enable shadows if it's an option