Do I need ray tracing in GPU?

[temps]

Advocates for the RTX 3000 series GPUs tell me I should buy an RTX card because it supports ray tracing better and I won't be able to play future games at playable FPS unless I get on board with ray tracing.

Is ray tracing really necessary? Honestly, I looked at some YouTube videos showing ray tracing vs non ray tracing gameplay side by side, and I didn't notice any difference, aside from the massive drop in frames per second to enable ray tracing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRH0ug7GOlc

If I get the AMD GPU that doesn't support ray tracing... and I want to play some new-release game say 2 or 3 years from now that has ray tracing, can't I just turn the ray tracing off in the game settings to make it work with my AMD GPU that doesn't handle ray tracing very well?

People are acting like I won't be able to play future game releases if I get an AMD GPU because it doesn't work with ray tracing or something.

[r.linder]

Raytracing is going to take another few generations to have widespread support in AAA titles. Support is still limited, so don't buy based on RT unless you want to play the limited selection of games that support it.

[Grimy_RIck]

The new AMD card do have raytracing, its just not as good as Nvidia cards, but regardless, raytracing is just an option in the graphics settings in game you can just switch it off, you will still be able to play any new games that come out.

[_I_]

any gpu can do rt
its just how well/fast

the rtx cards have shortcuts to do it faster
if the game has a min req of an rtx card, then you need one to play the game

[temps]

Grimy_RIck님이 먼저 게시:

raytracing is just an option in the graphics settings in game you can just switch it off, you will still be able to play any new games that come out.

This is great to know. Thank you. I was worried if games would have ray tracing on by default or something and so if I get the wrong GPU now I would have crappy performance.

[temps]

This guy I'm talking with says the AMD cards are worse because they don't have/support adaptive sync or HDR. Is that true?

[_I_]

amd gpus can use freesync, and support hdr

[N0REGARD4LIFE]

No. The performance hit on even the new 30 series GPUs make it IMO unusable if you want the highest fps. Maybe in another 6 years the hardware will catch up to what RT requires, but it's definitely not there right now. I own on RT game and that's Cyberpunk, and sure it looks nice but the performance is crap.

[A&A]

No most of the games doesn't support it

[nullable]

temps님이 먼저 게시:

Grimy_RIck님이 먼저 게시:

raytracing is just an option in the graphics settings in game you can just switch it off, you will still be able to play any new games that come out.

This is great to know. Thank you. I was worried if games would have ray tracing on by default or something and so if I get the wrong GPU now I would have crappy performance.

For perspective Anti-Aliasing came out on GPU's about twenty years ago. And it's still an optional setting and they're still tinkering with implementations. But early on the performance hit of AA was "should I run at 800x600 with AA on, or 1024x768 with AA off?"

It'll be quite a long time before ray tracing is a hard requirement. But it's an amazing technology. Quake 2 RTX or Minecraft RTX I think are among the best sales pitches for the stark difference total ray tracing makes. A lot of "usable" implementations in games are going to be quite limited because the demands for ray tracing are just so so high still. Wanting it to be totally mainstream and having hardware to support that are two different things. And until midrange.entry level hardware can do halfway decent ray tracing, forget it. It'll just be a tech demo-y, benchmark-y, "someday we'll have this proper", feature that the current hardware just isn't quite completely up to delivering in every game.

[plat]

No, it's not needed and only a few games offer the means to utilize the technology in-game. Only one benchmark that I know of is specific for RTX and that's Port Royal by 3DMark.

Did anyone hear about NVIDIA's overstepping the boundaries by freezing out Hardware Unboxed (denying HU its Founders Edition gpus for testing and benchmarking) because: get this! Hardware Unboxed was emphasizing rasterization and "neglecting" ray-tracing in its reviews. How stupid, especially since RTX is still in relative infancy! HU denied doing this and the guy seemed genuinely bewildered about the accusation. Look it up on YouTube, it's all there.

NVIDIA then quickly took it all back, likely because there was a lot of backlash, like from Linus and Gamers Nexus. I tell you: NVIDIA is on my nerves the last couple of months as it is with its (mis)handling of its latest tech. Makes it easier for me to wait it out gpu-wise. If AMD wasn't: a. sold out and b. not as advanced w/RTX, I would honestly consider a gpu from them. Money talks. Nobody walks.

[Lord Flashheart]

If you like ray tracing in games (which are not many) then yes.
If not, then no.

[AbedsBrother]

Necessary? No.
Nice to have? Yes.

[Nabster]

I had no interest in ray tracing until I see the ray tracing difference in Minecraft. I think it matters a lot when the original lighting work was done poorly due to the age of the game.

Is it necessary? No.
Ideal? Yes
Would I pay a small premium? Yes, say less than 10% of total cost

[InfinityJosh]

3D, curved monitors, now it’s the turn of Ray Tracing.
They need to invent some stuffs to sell new hardware when market is static.

[Kumoko]

not needed atm not many games supports it id rather not buy one now till there r many games that supports it unless of course u need an upgrade if u have an 1080ti maybe wait for 2 years developers seems to b putting RT in their games now surely by 2022 there will be plenty