How does this technology work with light and shadow effects in graphics? How important is it for realistic images? What impact does it have on performance in games?
What's ray tracing like?
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So why does ray tracing hit performance so hard? And I'd say the difference is pretty noticeable when you compare it to the fake lighting in games.
Ray tracing adds realism to graphics by calculating rays according to physical rules (reflections, refractions, shadows, etc.). But can you see the same effect in all games? New-gen GPUs (like the RTX 40xx series) come with hardware ray tracing cores, but older cards (e.g., RTX 20xx) can do it via software—though you won’t enjoy it there, as performance drops can hit 90%. On an RTX 4080, manual settings might cost you 20-30% FPS, but technologies like FSR 3 can help compensate. So, when ray tracing is supported in games (like *Cyberpunk 2077* or *Alan Wake 2*), do you prioritize visual quality over performance loss? Or would you rather turn off the effects when your FPS drops to 30?