Yes, you learn that appropriately. Nvidia have introduced they’re going to allow DirectX ray tracing (or DXR for brief) on GeForce GTX 10-series graphics playing cards, beginning with the 6GB GTX 1060 subsequent month. The replace will come through a brand new Game Ready Driver anticipated someday in April, and the hope is that it’s going to lastly give builders the shot within the arm they so desperately want in an effort to get extra ray tracing-enabled games into our hungry, reflection-obsessed mitts – no matter whether or not you may have an RTX graphics card or not.
Now earlier than new RTX homeowners begin moaning about having wasted their cash on a model new graphics card simply to benefit from all of the cool Nvidia RTX options they arrive with, similar to real-time ray tracing and DLSS, it’s value declaring that these playing cards are nonetheless much better geared up to do all that stuff than their GTX 10-series siblings. That’s largely as a result of each RTX card has devoted RT Cores inside its Turing GPU which have been particularly designed to deal with ray tracing functions at excessive speeds and, extra importantly, excessive resolutions.
Newly DXR-enabled GTX playing cards, nonetheless, will solely have the ability to ray hint at “lower RT quality settings and resolutions”, in keeping with Nvidia. Admittedly, it’s not solely clear what meaning in apply in the meanwhile, but it surely in all probability goes with out saying that making an attempt to ray hint on greater high quality settings will seemingly trigger your GTX playing cards to weep massive, completely reflective tears.
Indeed, one factor Nvidia have mentioned is that their RTX playing cards will have the ability to rise up to 2-3x quicker DXR efficiency because of these aforementioned RT Cores. Just take a look at this graph under exhibiting a single body of Metro Exodus gameplay and all the additional work the GTX 1080 Ti is doing in comparison with the RTX 2080 – each with and with out the usage of its RT Cores (click on to broaden). Add in Metro Exodus’ DLSS assist, and different graphs in Nvidia’s information submit present you’ll get a body fee that’s thrice quicker on the RTX 2080 than the GTX 1080 Ti on Ultra settings at 1440p, taking it to simply above 60fps in comparison with the 1080 Ti’s 20fps efficiency.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the RTX 2080 will likely be twice as quick because the GTX 1080 Ti on the equal settings at 1440p, providing 60fps speeds as a substitute of 30fps, and in Battlefield V it is going to be 1.6x quicker, boosting the 1080 Ti’s body fee of 45fps up nearer to 80fps on its RTX sibling.
What I’m significantly eager to search out out, nonetheless, is what their newly-launched GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Ti graphics playing cards are able to, for whereas they don’t have the identical devoted RT Cores like their RTX cousins, I’d think about their Turing GPUs will likely be so much faster at processing all that DXR knowledge than their Pascal predecessors. Only time will inform.
Still, whereas I’m certain Nvidia would a lot slightly you purchase one in every of their infinitely extra succesful RTX playing cards for correct ray tracing efficiency, it’s promising information nonetheless for the ray tracing skeptics on the market who would possibly wish to see what the fuss is all about first earlier than taking the plunge and spending a load of money on upgrading their graphics card. What’s extra, Nvidia have additionally confirmed the driving force replace will likely be enabled on equal GTX 10 and RTX 20-series laptops as nicely – i.e: 6GB GTX 1060 laptops and above – permitting you to take your love of ray tracing on the transfer wherever you go.
Of course, I’ll be testing the way it all works and what sort of efficiency you’ll be able to anticipate out of your GTX GPUs as quickly as the driving force lands subsequent month, so watch this area for extra particulars.
