Shadow of the Tomb Raider DXR Performance Analysis

Shadow of the Tomb Raider RTX and DLSS

The latest Tomb Raider game is finally an RTX enabled game! When Nvidia launched their RTX equipped graphics cards, we were treated to some very sexy technical demos, but not many real games to play. We’ve already done our RTX performance testing on the properly fantastic Metro: Exodus here. Although we followed that up with a Metro: Exodus re-test and even threw in a Battlefield V RTX re-test too, due to performance updates in the games and their drivers. You can read that one here too.

Ray Tracing

Battlefield used RT for reflections, Metro used it for global lighting, and now Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses a little bit of both. However, the key RT feature here is how it’s used to make shadows. Of course, that’s quite fitting given the name of the game. So, let’s see what kind of performance impact we can expect. I would like to add right now, however, that as with other RTX games, we expect driver updates to drastically improve this games performance over the next few weeks. I guarantee it.

GPUs Featured

• ASUS Strix RTX 2060
• Aorus Xtreme RTX 2070
• EVGA XC Ultra RTX 2080
• Gigabyte RTX 2080 Ti

Trailer

Game Description

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

• Survive and Thrive In the Deadliest Place on Earth: Master an unforgiving jungle setting in order to survive. Explore underwater environments filled with crevasses and deep tunnel systems.
• Become One With the Jungle: Outgunned and outnumbered, Lara must use the jungle to her advantage. Strike suddenly and disappear like a jaguar, use mud as camouflage, and instill fear in enemies to sow chaos.
• Discover Dark and Brutal Tombs: Tombs are more terrifying than ever before, requiring advanced traversal techniques to reach them, and once inside they are filled with deadly puzzles.
• Uncover Living History: Discover a hidden city and explore the biggest hub space ever found in a Tomb Raider game.