Raytracing halves framerates in Battlefield V — even a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti cannot handle the full brunt of DXR!

The main point of the GeForce RTX cards were to enable real-time raytracing in games. But it seems that gamers might not be even able to enjoy raytracing at its finest on NVIDIA’s latest and greatest card. TechPowerUp’s tests show that even the flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was brought to its knees when DirectX Raytracing (DXR) was set to Ultra.

The GeForce RTX cards were only capable of a playable experience (above 60 fps) with DXR enabled at 1080p, as even 1440p brings the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti down to a low frame rate of just 73.2 fps with DXR set to Low. Anything higher and the average frame rate dips below the hallowed 60 fps mark. If you want to enjoy Battlefield V with raytracing enabled, you will definitely have to get the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, as anything lower and you won’t actually get a great experience.

What must be noted is that real-time raytracing is still a massive breakthrough, despite lackluster performance. The realism of the reflections even at DXR Low is a huge upgrade. Raytracing used to be a technology reserved only for professionals, but it is now available for gamers, in real time. Considering that this is NVIDIA’s first time making a GPU capable of real-time raytracing, they definitely deserve some slack. Probably more too, as there is actually nothing from the competition capable of delivering a similar experience.

The question now is, would you be willing to settle to lesser frame rates to enjoy more realistic shadows and reflections?

Pokdepinion: It seems like we are having the same situation as we had back when 4K monitors appeared on the scene. A few generations later, we will be laughing at today’s GeForce RTX 20-series performance. But for now, this is the only way you can even experience raytracing. It’s expensive, it’s taxing, but it’s surely very beautiful.