As we’ve already reported, DICE has enabled the real-time ray tracing RTX effects in Battlefield 5 via its day-1 patch. And while it took us a while, we had to also download the October 2018 update for Windows 10, we were finally able to test these new effects with our NVIDIA GeForce RTX2080Ti.
By this time I’m pretty sure that most of you already know how the real-time ray tracing effects are used in Battlefield 5. For those not knowing, DICE has used RTX for all reflections and refractions, resulting in some of the most accurate reflections we’ve seen in a game.
Before continuing, I really need to point out that ray tracing is the future. The difference between screen-space reflections and ray tracing reflections is huge, and makes all reflective surfaces look better. We also can’t wait to see the results in other games that will be using ray tracing for Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion.
However, even NVIDIA’s flagship graphics card, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX2080Ti, was unable to run Battlefield 5 with constant 60fps at 1080p on Ultra settings. This is disappointing for a GPU that is advertised as a GPU capable of offering ray tracing effects – that also costs $1200 – however this also shows how really demanding these effects actually are. Even with its RT cores, NVIDIA’s high-end GPU cannot offer a smooth gaming experience. Still, we are basically taking a glimpse at the future so this is something really special.
In Battlefield 5, DICE has implemented four ray tracing presets: Low, Medium, High and Ultra. Right now, the Medium setting is bugged so we’ll test all four presets once everything is working properly. Until then, we can say that on Ultra settings at 1080p (with RTX on Ultra) we saw a few rare drops at 40fps and frequent drops to 52-55fps. We’ve also tried lowering our graphics settings to Medium however we were still unable to avoid the drops below 60fps (our minimum framerate was 53fps).
So yeah, right now it appears that NVIDIA’s flagship graphics card is simply unable to offer a smooth gaming experience even at 1080p with the Ultra preset of the real-time ray tracing effects in Battlefield 5. The good news is that those with a GSync monitor will be able to enjoy a smoother gaming experience and I believe that will be a key for those that want to experience RTX in this generation.
Enjoy the following screenshots!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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