Survey Hints 50% Gamers Think Ray Tracing Is Not Worth Performance Loss

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Avinash Jaisrani

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Ray tracing is among the most impressive features in current-gen consoles and PC graphics cards. The technique can accurately simulate light, leading to lifelike reflections, shadows, and more.

Games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition have shown the true potential of ray tracing, but these visual upgrades come at a performance cost. Gamers will often find a considerable reduction in frame rates once ray tracing is enabled.

This is one of the drawbacks, and a recent survey asks users more about their issues with the technique. The survey revealed that over 50% of users were not impressed with the visual uplift for the sacrifice to performance.

The other responses complained about the lack of drastic visual changes and the limited library of games with ray tracing support.

The second most popular response was also related to the performance drawbacks. Even with the third generation of Nvidia products, the best GPUs can struggle to reach expected frame rates when ray tracing is involved.

A similar scenario is observed with AMD graphics cards, which are a generation behind and generally perform worse in this aspect. Both manufacturers have used upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR to address the performance impacts.

Recently, Nvidia has also launched DLSS 3, which uses AI to generate frames. AMD is working on a similar solution, hoping to reduce the performance blows further until the hardware is strong enough.

Only 9.4% of participants felt that ray tracing does not have any problems right now.

Ray tracing continues to improve with each new generation of graphics cards, but it is far from perfect. While the survey did not have a massive sample size, it seems to align with the general sentiment around ray tracing.

Avinash Jaisrani

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