Is Ray Tracing Worth It?

[LunarFirestorm]

With DLSS on quality I can run the game smoothly with all settings maxed and ray tracing off and it looks great. When I enable ray tracing though I struggle to run the game smoothly without lowering the main settings quite a bit.

Sure ray tracing looks pretty in this game but it doesn't seem worth it in my case when I have to lower the main settings a lot to get the game to run smoothly with it.

[fauxpas]

Honestly I tend to view raytracing as an expensive gimmick and the moment I have to lower a setting I turn it off.

[wesnef]

Originally posted by LunarFirestorm:

but it doesn't seem worth it in my case

And that's the thing. It's entirely subjective to each person & their hardware. It's your call whether the performance hit is worth the pretty, for you. (just like for any other graphics option or mod)

Sounds like you've made your choice. Other people, who either have better GPUs or care more about 'pretty', will make a different choice.

[5ean5ean]

I have a 120 FPS 4k OLED. Anything that takes the FPS under 90 at High/Med settings gets turned off.

I honestly could care less about Raytracing. I dont notice graphics after 5 minutes of playing, I do notice low frames.

[Zebedee]

If fps is the main thing for you then the game is perfectly pretty without RT. I personally prefer RT on (and I've hundreds of hours both with it on and off) but it's personal preference and that's the glory of PC gaming and having the settings to play with.

[Crimsomrider]

It is worth it if you are able to have everything maxed out with RTX and stay above 60FPS.

It is not worth it if you have to compensate graphical settings to stay above 60FPS with RTX turned on.

If you are uncertain about whether RTX is worth based on visuals alone, here is the simplest comparison:

RTX OFF
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880287775
RTX ON
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880287762
I personally with a 3080ti and Ryzen 5950x have everything maxed out with RTX and have no issues staying at a solid silky smooth 65FPS. Game looks gorgeous and feels silky smooth as I have Gsync on.

[egg fu]

it is if you're not fixated on getting a stable 60 fps.

i would have it 100% but its the cause of the menu lag bug in my case so its off for now.

[Zero McDol]

I don't use the game's ray tracing and have a 3060 everything max minus RT stuff. I use global illumination and SSR RT via resahde (passively) instead, which saves me a lot of fps loss.

So if you have the hardware for it then sure, otherwise no.

[JediFlip25]

I've been turning it on/off in places to see the difference and its hardly noticeable when I'm actually playing the game and not sight seeing. So I keep it off. It's not worth the performance hit in my opinion.

[The Comedian]

I switch between RT on and off, the reflections (vehicle in particular) look nice - not sure I see enough of a difference with the other RT settings on max when you take into account the performance hit.
If I could absorb the performance hit and retain 60+ FPS everywhere - then I would probably leave all RT settings on max, but I get drops to low 50's when in high impact areas which is really noticeable....

[TheSuit]

DLSS + Ray Tracing is 100% worth it

[RIP Chicken]

Originally posted by TheSuit:

DLSS + Ray Tracing is 100% worth it

Gonna have to second this. I do take a performance hit, but I can't play without this combo. The game just doesn't look nearly as good.

[popsicle]

Without RT you are playing on tetris graphics.

[Zero McDol]

Originally posted by popsicle:

Without RT you are playing on tetris graphics.

That's a bit much :D.

The graphics are pretty good with or without ray tracing, however you do get the most out of the visual via the RT stuff.

[landmass]

ray tracing in cyberpunk is quite literally one of the greatest graphical achievements in gaming so far... this garbage obsession with these framerates and "this is my number" blah blah at the expense of graphical fidelity is goofy

60fps stable with ultra and ray tracing looks substantially more impressive across the board than 90fps at a mix of med/high with no ray tracing

it is a net loss if youre sacrificing RT when you can be playing with it at a stable framerate

[landmass]

Originally posted by Crimsomrider:

It is worth it if you are able to have everything maxed out with RTX and stay above 60FPS.

It is not worth it if you have to compensate graphical settings to stay above 60FPS with RTX turned on.

If you are uncertain about whether RTX is worth based on visuals alone, here is the simplest comparison:

RTX OFF
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880287775
RTX ON
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2880287762
I personally with a 3080ti and Ryzen 5950x have everything maxed out with RTX and have no issues staying at a solid silky smooth 65FPS. Game looks gorgeous and feels silky smooth as I have Gsync on.

i have the exact same setup as this chap and i agree completely.