As we were watching Nvidia reveal their ray tracing technology, we were absolutely blown away at the visual impressiveness it had. Perhaps though, we were a little too misty-eyed about it. The next morning one of my colleagues said (paraphrasing somewhat) ‘All very impressive, but how will it perform in gaming when switched on?’.
In fairness, it was a good point. Once which most of us, blinded by the light, hadn’t considered. It also seems that it is a mildly prophetic one too. In a report via DSOGaming, it’s reported that with RTX ray tracing switched on, the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider (what will likely be the first game to offer compatibility with it) will not hold 60FPS at 1080p.
Square Enix has confirmed that in its current form, the frame rate question is entirely correct. The game can’t hold a solid 60FPS with ray tracing turned on. They have, however, added a little caveat. They say that while it might be true now, Tomb Raider is still in an early build state. As such, by the time the game is released, and optimisation can be carried out, it should be fine.
It does, however, still raise the question as to how much of a drag turning on that pretty ray tracing on will cost you in performance.
In fairness, this isn’t confirmed and until a ray tracing capable game lands, we’re not going to have any idea as to how much it impacts performance. We do, however, already know that just switching on Nvidia’s HairWorks can have quite a notable effect on performance.
It might just be hyperbole run wild. It could, however, also be a very valid question acting as a grey cloud on this otherwise amazingly sunny sky.
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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