JUNE 2020 PCWorld 75Nvidia says that every RTX graphics card
playing at its intended resolution will deliver
“playable” frame rates in the game, which a
representative defined as 30 or 40 frames-plus.
The 60-fps-or-bust snobs among us may turn
up their noses at that, but in a slower, less
detailed game like Minecraft, playing it felt fine.
A lower, but playable frame rate isn’t the
only sacrifice required for the glory of path
tracing. My custom graphics card’s fans
screamed every few seconds as I wandered
across more intensive parts of the worlds,
revving up far more often and far more loudly
than they have in any other game before,
even Control or Metro Exodus with ray tracing
on. My colleague Adam Patrick Murray says
his RTX 2070 Super hasn’t suffered the same
fate during his own testing, so your mileage
may vary.
Enabling ray tracing also dramatically
reduces the draw distance of far-away
objects.
In this scene from Imagination Island,
turning on ray tracing makes the castle, Ferris
wheel, forest, and
other rides in the
distance disappear,
though this map’s flat
layout makes it
somewhat of a
worst-case scenario.
Until I’d wrapped my
mind around the
world’s layout, I
actually needed to
toggle ray tracing off
periodically to get my
bearings.
It’s noticeable
even in closer scenes,
though, at least if
you’re toggling ray
tracing on and off. It’s
probably less obvious
if you stick to ray
traced visuals alone.RTX on.RTX off.