Is Ray Tracing Worth the FPS Hit? 36 Game Performance Investigation

Oct 31, 2024

Examines pros and cons of ray tracing in 36 games with Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Is Ray Tracing Worth the FPS Hit? 36 Game Performance Investigation

: The analysis explores the performance impact of ray tracing in 36 games on GeForce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs. Ray tracing enhancements vary, with some games experiencing substantial FPS drops without notable visual benefits. Nvidia GPUs often outperform AMD in ray tracing, though performance hits remain significant. The future of high-quality PC visuals may rely on path tracing, requiring more powerful GPUs to reduce performance costs.

This investigation evaluates the performance cost of ray tracing in 36 popular games, focusing on the GeForce RTX 4090 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs. It emphasizes the notable frame rate reductions associated with ray tracing, with some games showing little visual improvement, making it difficult to justify the performance trade-offs.

Nvidia GPUs generally surpass AMD in handling ray tracing, but the performance hit remains a major concern for both architectures. Some games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition demonstrate significant visual gains that help justify the FPS reduction, but this isn't consistent across all titles.

Path tracing is identified as a potential future for high-end PC visuals, but current GPUs like the RTX 4090 still struggle to maintain high performance with this feature enabled. With improvements in hardware, ray tracing and path tracing could transform game graphics, though significant advancements are necessary for broader adoption in the gaming community.