Control Ray Tracing Performance – How to Get Your RTX ON

Overview

Control is certainly a unique game right now, as it’s one of the most prominent examples of ray tracing technology. The flagship Nvidia RTX cards are currently the only cards with some kind of ray tracing accelerator. Of course, that means we can’t really compare them to AMD, or even Intel graphics engines right now. However, this wasn’t about even seeing which GPU in the Nvidia range was the fastest. We know the RTX 2080 Ti is the fastest, that’s not a big surprise.

RTX On

Of course, what I really wanted to see was where we are right now with the extreme end of ray tracing. Depending on how you look at it, we’re in a great place, and a tough spot at the same time. The effect of ray tracing is a little more than a simple layer in the rendering. It’s truly calculated path tracing of light and pixels. The end result is fully realistic mapping of lights, shadows and reflections. The end result is staggeringly beautiful. Of course, the performance hit for that is equally staggering. Albeit, with Control, it’s the heavy implementation that slows things down rather than the cards. The cards are properly fast, but Remedy Entertainment are wanting to push the envelope with their game engine. It may be another two GPU generations before we can truly max out this game; a wise move if you ask me.

Real Rays

Next up, fake effects are another issue. Developers aren’t stupid, they know what light, shadow, and shiny are supposed to look like. We’ve gone decades without real-time ray tracing, and we’re pretty good at faking most effects. For some, RTX Off will look just fine, and it does, it’s what we’re used to. For me though, I’m a graphics junkie, and seeing RTX On in person is something I can’t get enough of. Of course, you need the right GPU. For 1080p gamers, the RTX 2060 is just about enough with pretty high-end graphics settings. Anything above that, such as 1440p, you’ll want the RTX 2070 or above, although ideally the RTX 2080. Even the RTX 2080 Ti struggled to get close to 60 FPS with high settings, but it’s obviously still the best card for the job if you can afford it.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think about real-time ray tracing? We really want to know what you think. I can tell you, it’s not going anywhere. Just like other advancements in GPU technology, this one is a very big deal. It might not always seem it just now, but this IS the future of graphics. It’s a tough party to play in right now, but it’s a hell of a start.