QOTW: Does your next GPU need to support ray tracing?

[nobodyspecial]

It does if you want me to buy it... Everything coming (pc, console etc) will have it, all engines etc. At this point, I want to enjoy everything coming. I can't do that without RT, DLSS, VRS. Get all 3 or I go NV 7nm next.

Will I like how they use it in EVERY instance? Of course not, as it will take a while for devs to get stuff right, and figure out how the hardware all works etc. IE, BF5 dev said it only took 2 weeks to speed up 50% after they had time to work with the drivers and they said they had MORE perf left to extract. NV says they are working with every dev to get it into PC games. Again, sign me up, even if I only want 1/4 of the games (25 or so coming now) currently in dev, never mind ALL that will come for years. These 3 technologies are the future, it's just a matter of figuring out where/how they work best in your games.

You would have to be selling cards at a MAJOR discount for me to dump these features. Which is why AMD should have used more silicon and put it all in. Whiners can complain all they want, 75% of the cards on steam are NV for a reason. It is not PRICE. Gamers PAY for perf and features. How the heck do you think HEDT started? Yeah, some of us pay MUCH more, and NOT because we're rich. CPU, different story, I'll take AMD probably, though still pissed about gaming (how long until you get this right? AGAIN go BIGGER DIE!). At 7nm, AMD should have lost ZERO use cases, games OR apps. PERIOD. You should have designed to BEAT intel in ALL games. PERIOD. You already have apps, fix the dang games. All the reviewers have to run 1440p/4k to hide your weakness. Still on the fence until I see 570 boards drop I guess. BF this year will be fun, but until then I can wait. See how that works AMD? If you had WON games (like everyone I know expected...ROFL), I'd have already bought 2 with another 1-2 for black friday. Now? Uh, I can wait. I would have taken a chance on the board if AMD won games, now I will wait out some homework on who's best etc, for what I want. By xmas, we'll be on 570 v2 boards with all the teething crap fixed most likely

Quit aiming at poor people AMD. Always go rich, BIG, first. I don't pay premiums for MISSING features, or GAME losses. For those two PROBLEMS, I expect bargain bin prices, which would REALLY hurt my stock AMD (LOL). Please start acting more like NV/Intel. AMD is getting there, but still more work to do, as the gpu launch is a joke if your 7nm doesn't EAT 2080ti 12nm for lunch. At worst you should have won EVERY game at like watts. Anything less, you get PRICE CUTS pre launch...ROFL. Do the math, WIN or lower prices. Want ASP's up? WIN. PERIOD. Want steam survey to change from nv 75%? WIN. PERIOD. That means GROW THE DANG DIE size! Savings here is peanuts compared to PROFITS gained from WINNING and charging premiums because you are WORTH IT.

[peterb]

No, I have absolutely no requirement for ray tracing or any high powered GPU.

[anselhelm]

RTX-compatible? No.
Generic DXR-compatible? Possibly.

Regardless, I intend to stick with my RX Vega 64 until a suitable upgrade is available at a reasonable price (~ £300 GBP) with further features. At present, for the games I'm playing, I'm happily gaming away at 60 FPS at either 1440P or 2160P.

DXR will only be relevant for me for games that presently don't exist. Furthermore, even with a 2080 Ti, gamers aren't really getting a decent ray tracing experience. Existing cards just aren't powerful enough to do this in real-time without serious drops in framerate.

To be honest, I'd settle for smarter fake ray tracing in Unreal Engine 4 or Unity.

[SlickR]

Not a half assed implementation like RTX that costs us 50% performance for barely any actual improvement in quality.

Once the technology, software and financial sides are all ready, then it will be welcomed. Its too soon for ray tracing in real time.

[spolsh]

Erm, No.

[Euphonium]

Ray tracing cards are far too expensive for me right now, and I'm to skeptical of all the hype. Maybe in another generation or two.

[=assassin=]

I don't care about ray tracing at all, the speed of the card in general is what matters, and my next card will be purchased based on how well it'll run Cyberpunk 2077 Hence I shall be waiting until then to bother upgrading, if indeed it is actually needed!

[lon3wolf2002]

Maybe my next one as I have no plans to upgrade for a few years, by then it should be common place and hopefully not carry a premium.

[Percy1983]

I can't afford/justify ray tracing, will be affordable one day.

[Rubarb]

I couldn't care less about ray tracing and given the cost of the RTX cards it's definite NO for me.

[QuorTek]

Hi and Hello

I am more interested in what will come next that is similar to, and it will arrive sooner or later if not a better method is found, going for direct support only from one brand causes some limitations and use as consumers whether industrial or private or whatever got to tell the companies that they are not going to gain any edge unless they start supporting same features, Nvidia or AMD does not suddenly invent the wheel again whenever they pound out a new product, it also gotta be userfriendly and be able to support a more wide standard rather than this or that additional piece of special equipment we have to buy to get the last 5-10% performance or the likes.

[Iota]

No. I'm not interested in ray tracing but if I get a GPU that supports it, I'm okay with it. I'd rather have raw performance to drive my high refresh rate monitor.

This sums it up. I have a GPU that supports it, but don't use it for that purpose.

[watercooled]

If RTX is anything to go by then I'd rather it didn't TBH. Visual effects are IMO disappointing to downright silly, performance is terrible, and die cost is beyond unreasonable. Maybe future nodes and architectural improvements will help with all of the above but I can't help feeling Nvidia's implementation will be at the expense of raster performance for a given die size.

So I remain open-minded for the future, but as it stands, nope. There's little logic in buying something when it doesn't work 'because it's the future'. And either way, similar to what others have mentioned already, brand-locked nonsense repeatedly and demonstrably fails in the GPU market, so I'd be more inclined to wait for the standardised implementations which don't require specific hardware which may well not exist in future GPUs, breaking backwards compatibility, and being limited to a handful of sponsored games.

[ohmaheid]

Huge performance and price penalty for a bit of eye-candy. RT is the 2019 version of Hairworks.
Sadly there is no shortage of idiocy, and that fact only encourages Nvidia.

[infraction]

By time raytracing is actually needed for an optimal gaming experience all these RTX cards would be obsolete.

High resolutions & frame rates matter more at the minute, being able to push up to 4k or high refresh even on mid tier cards is vital.

[spacein_vader]

I'll wait till mass adoption, and that means next gen consoles being released. When they have it, I'll look at getting a card that supports the same implementation they use as thats what devs will target. Even then its less important to me than being able to drive games at 60+ FPS at 1440p as I'll notice that much more.

It does if you want me to buy it... Everything coming (pc, console etc) will have it, all engines etc. At this point, I want to enjoy everything coming. I can't do that without RT, DLSS, VRS. Get all 3 or I go NV 7nm next.

Will I like how they use it in EVERY instance? Of course not, as it will take a while for devs to get stuff right, and figure out how the hardware all works etc. IE, BF5 dev said it only took 2 weeks to speed up 50% after they had time to work with the drivers and they said they had MORE perf left to extract. NV says they are working with every dev to get it into PC games. Again, sign me up, even if I only want 1/4 of the games (25 or so coming now) currently in dev, never mind ALL that will come for years. These 3 technologies are the future, it's just a matter of figuring out where/how they work best in your games.

You would have to be selling cards at a MAJOR discount for me to dump these features. Which is why AMD should have used more silicon and put it all in. Whiners can complain all they want, 75% of the cards on steam are NV for a reason. It is not PRICE. Gamers PAY for perf and features. How the heck do you think HEDT started? Yeah, some of us pay MUCH more, and NOT because we're rich. CPU, different story, I'll take AMD probably, though still pissed about gaming (how long until you get this right? AGAIN go BIGGER DIE!). At 7nm, AMD should have lost ZERO use cases, games OR apps. PERIOD. You should have designed to BEAT intel in ALL games. PERIOD. You already have apps, fix the dang games. All the reviewers have to run 1440p/4k to hide your weakness. Still on the fence until I see 570 boards drop I guess. BF this year will be fun, but until then I can wait. See how that works AMD? If you had WON games (like everyone I know expected...ROFL), I'd have already bought 2 with another 1-2 for black friday. Now? Uh, I can wait. I would have taken a chance on the board if AMD won games, now I will wait out some homework on who's best etc, for what I want. By xmas, we'll be on 570 v2 boards with all the teething crap fixed most likely

Quit aiming at poor people AMD. Always go rich, BIG, first. I don't pay premiums for MISSING features, or GAME losses. For those two PROBLEMS, I expect bargain bin prices, which would REALLY hurt my stock AMD (LOL). Please start acting more like NV/Intel. AMD is getting there, but still more work to do, as the gpu launch is a joke if your 7nm doesn't EAT 2080ti 12nm for lunch. At worst you should have won EVERY game at like watts. Anything less, you get PRICE CUTS pre launch...ROFL. Do the math, WIN or lower prices. Want ASP's up? WIN. PERIOD. Want steam survey to change from nv 75%? WIN. PERIOD. That means GROW THE DANG DIE size! Savings here is peanuts compared to PROFITS gained from WINNING and charging premiums because you are WORTH IT.

I always think it's fun to read posts like these using only the ALLCAPS words (not including abreviations,) so without further ado:

EVERY MORE ALL MAJOR PRICE PAY MUCH NOT AGAIN BIGGER DIE ZERO OR PERIOD BEAT ALL PERIOD WON BIG MISSING GAME PROBLEMS REALLY EAT EVERY PRICE CUTS WIN WIN PERIOD WIN PERIOD GROW THE DANG DIE PROFITS WINNING WORTH IT

Which does still carry a lot of the original message tbh.