Ray Tracing not worth VRAM and performance hits

[Kannibale]

I'm about half way through the game on a RTX 3080 at 1440p and I've been playing around with the graphics settings for awhile now. On the default high preset with all forms of ray tracing and DLSS / dynamic resolution disabled I get around 120-150 FPS with VRAM sitting between 9-9.4GB used.

So the card is already capped out at this point, I can go to the very high preset and even set all forms of ray tracing to very high, and set DLSS to quality mode and maintain around 50-65 fps. VRAM is locked at 9.5GB and capped out. But actual RAM usage climbs from around 10GB to 17GB. So all that extra data that can't fit into VRAM sits in system memory, so there are quite noticeable stutters, pauses and textures not loading properly when using this config. Gotta remember DLSS actually needs VRAM overhead to work properly, so even that can look bad at times. The game looks great with everything maxed out, but losing around 2.5x of my FPS and losing smooth gameplay for just a bit of pretty effects isn't really worth it imo.

My opinion at least for people using an RTX 3080 like me, disable DLSS, disable dynamic resolution, run the high preset, disable all forms of ray tracing and just enjoy the game.

[DeadPhoenix]

Ray Tracing seems to cause a lot of stuttering. As soon as i turn it off, the stuttering stops and it runs like a dream. I use Max settings and RT disabled. Getting over 100 fps on 1440p.

[the_randomizer1889]

RT is nice, but it's nothing more then eye candy, and too computationally expensive

[Captain Furious]

I’ve turned off RT shadows, but I’m keeping reflections and AO on very high, I think they’re worth it

[Kannibale]

Originally posted by DeadPhoenix:

Ray Tracing seems to cause a lot of stuttering. As soon as i turn it off, the stuttering stops and it runs like a dream. I use Max settings and RT disabled. Getting over 100 fps on 1440p.

The main problem was actually the texture setting. I just changed that from high to medium and now I'm only at 8.1gb of VRAM usage. That's after changing everything to very high + ultra and having DLSS set to balanced.

So basically everything maxed out now, but textures on medium. Getting 90-120 FPS pretty stable with no real large spikes anymore. Actual RAM usage is also down 5GB. I really wish they had a bigger warning for the texture setting and the high preset defaulted to medium.

[DeadPhoenix]

Originally posted by Kannibale:

Originally posted by DeadPhoenix:

Ray Tracing seems to cause a lot of stuttering. As soon as i turn it off, the stuttering stops and it runs like a dream. I use Max settings and RT disabled. Getting over 100 fps on 1440p.

The main problem was actually the texture setting. I just changed that from high to medium and now I'm only at 8.1gb of VRAM usage. That's after changing everything to very high + ultra and having DLSS set to balanced.

So basically everything maxed out now, but textures on medium. Getting 90-120 FPS pretty stable with no real large spikes anymore. Actual RAM usage is also down 5GB. I really wish they had a bigger warning for the texture setting and the high preset defaulted to medium.

My GPU has 12GB of VRAM. Never seen it go above 9GB on my end. And RAM is 32GB.

[Kannibale]

Originally posted by DeadPhoenix:

Originally posted by Kannibale:

The main problem was actually the texture setting. I just changed that from high to medium and now I'm only at 8.1gb of VRAM usage. That's after changing everything to very high + ultra and having DLSS set to balanced.

So basically everything maxed out now, but textures on medium. Getting 90-120 FPS pretty stable with no real large spikes anymore. Actual RAM usage is also down 5GB. I really wish they had a bigger warning for the texture setting and the high preset defaulted to medium.

My GPU has 12GB of VRAM. Never seen it go above 9GB on my end. And RAM is 32GB.

Then you're playing at 720p because people with 16gb cards say they see it at 14gb

[Kain Mightyena]

RT is almost always never worth it in most games. Yes it looks incredible, especially in this game, but not worth slashing your frames in half among other issues like stutters or VRAM mismanagement.

[Blacksmith77K]

Originally posted by Kain Mightyena:

RT is almost always never worth it in most games. Yes it looks incredible, especially in this game, but not worth slashing your frames in half among other issues like stutters or VRAM mismanagement.

As I wrote in another post: there are many games where raytracing is just a "gimmick".

in this case here, raytracing reflections, raytracing shadows and raytracing AO are used beautifully. (okay yes, the shadows need a 2nd patch because they don't move like they should)

but overall great!

[II SG93 II]

This game looks great without RT. I still haven't fallen for the hype over RT. The only game it really transforms in a positive way is Cyberpunk. Hardware is not ready but Nvidia like to shove overpriced ♥♥♥♥ down our throats anyway.

[Blacksmith77K]

Originally posted by II SG93 II:

This game looks great without RT.

Sure, but WITH realtime reflections it looks better. And WITH realtime AO it is much more 3-dimensional.

you don't HAVE to have it, but if you can, you can.

[DeadPhoenix]

Originally posted by Kannibale:

Originally posted by DeadPhoenix:

My GPU has 12GB of VRAM. Never seen it go above 9GB on my end. And RAM is 32GB.

Then you're playing at 720p because people with 16gb cards say they see it at 14gb

I play at 1440p. 9GB is what MSI afterburner is saying on my end.

[VastDarknyss]

RT is definitely worth it, completely changes the look and feel of the game. If ya got the specs for it the game runs and looks beautiful.

[Zaphre]

AO and Reflex is worth it.

Shadows isnt.

[Mike]

Tried playing it with ray tracing on crashes game for me runs much better without.