Is Ray Tracing Worth It? So we had some spare deep learning Ampere GPU laying around and I tested some games with ray tracing / RTX. The short answer is ... NO. The long answer - it depends. Let me explain. I played the following list of titles with ray tracing: "New" - Metro Exodus (yeah, I know about GSC Game World controversy) - just the intro. Ray tracing glitched and did not add much, except for water reflections; - Control. Some scenes were jaw-dropping with ray tracing, but it actually really influenced gameplay only during a handful of situations. The game looks fine without ray tracing; "Old" - Ultimate DOOM (yes, the og 1995 game, yes really), PrBOOM+ with ray tracing. The whole game, but skipped shit levels. The game changes completely, becomes more moody and dark. The game kind of EMERGES, becomes more atmospheric; - Serious Sam TFE, ray traced. Played first 4 levels, got bored. It is a cool tech demo, but lots of glitches and freezes (I have a weak CPU). Changes the mood of the game, but does not add much, except for very dark places; - Quake II RTX (make sure to have a copy of Quake II when installing to play all levels), full game with RTX. The most impressive one. The only optimized game (it is very funny to hear an Ampere GPU fully loaded when playing ... DOOM lol). Almost all levels are changed, moody, lighting is gorgeous, some effects (like water refraction, thick glass, force fields) are jaw-dropping. Overall - new games do not really benefit from and revolve around ray tracing. The old titles ... become jaw-dropping visually, moodier and more gritty in terms of gameplay. Remember when Half-Life 2 was released, everyone wanted to copy their physics, and almost no one made it a proper mechanic? Almost 20 years later, and physics is ubiquitous in game engines (PhysX was acquired by Nvidia, it was a separate card lol), but kind of pointless and disposable in 95% of games (except for HL franchise, Portal and a handful of titles). Compared to cordless VR multiplayer (and cannot be played at home for obvious reasons), which is on another level of experiences, ray tracing probably will be the same as gaming physics. Very cool, very atmospheric, very moody, but kind of pointless, because building games around it is impossible, risky or not profitable. Better make another shitty COD. Old games with ray tracing are a rare genuine marvel, though. I cannot speak for visual artists. Probably for them rendering light on-the-fly is a godsend. #hardware