Cyberpunk 2077 PC: What Does Ray Tracing Deliver… And Is It Worth It?



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Hardware accelerated ray tracing can prove transformative to the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 in many scenarios, but equally, its effects can be more subtle elsewhere. In this deep dive analysis, Alex Battaglia tests every ray tracing effect in the game and shows you exactly what they do. This work is worth factoring in when considering optimal settings, something Alex describes in depth here: https://youtu.be/pC25ambD8vs

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44 thoughts on “Cyberpunk 2077 PC: What Does Ray Tracing Deliver… And Is It Worth It?”

  1. If you just listen to the commentary you would think the game looks like crap without raytracing. It is a beautiful game without it, and raytracing makes it better, I like my video-games just fine with a video gamey look.

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  2. I own a 3090 and although I can appreciate the subtleties of Ray Tracing, the cost in FPS (even with DLSS) is still expensive. The base non RTX rendering already looks good.
    I spend more time running around in Cyperpunk 2077 than I do looking at rendering intricacies. DLSS on its own is pretty amazing.

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  3. I really wish I had an rtx card for this game as there are several scenes that look like complete ass because the whole world is glowing. One particularly bad one was inside the Basilisk with Panam. Even on ultra settings, there was nothing I could do to make that scene look good other than buy an rtx capable card.

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  4. Its good, but its really not that noticeable while playing especially during gunfights. The only time I notice is when I'm actively looking at the beauty of the game. But my fps goes from mid 80s to 30s with all RT effects on… its just not even close to being worth it. I often will toggle it on in certain areas just to see how it looks. I think RT reflections make the biggest noticeable difference in this game.

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  5. I strongly disagree that lighting is the most important of the RT features in this game. On my screen anyway, it's absolutely the reflections. You have to stop and look for the lighting changes. You notice the reflections right away– even when running by at "playing speed".

    Not saying you're 'wrong'. It's obviously an opinion thing.

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  6. I think what will help with the implementation of real time ray tracing is the fact that artists will save time by not having to correctly “light” every light source and that the final product looks better.

    The new consoles having at least some ray tracing will surely help with the adoption.

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  7. This game, maxed out on an RTX 3090, is one of very few games that has made me think "wow, this is next-gen". Joins the elite company of things like Doom 3 in 2004, Crysis in 2007, and Crysis 3 in 2013.

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  8. in 4-5 years time this tech will be standard in most games as hardware will be powerful enough to use it without tanking performance to much.. Today even a RTX 3080 and 3090 still have a hard time keeping fps up with full RTX on.. It's cool tech though and DLSS helps a lot..

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  9. I agree with almost everything you've said and pointed out here, however the quest w/ Panam looks noticeably worse with ray tracing on. It was so dark inside her vehicle that literally only her eyes were barely visible at points. That and the huge toll rtx was taking on my 3700x/2080 super was why I ended up turning it off so that I could enjoy this masterpiece in 1440p on my 4k qled tv with a somewhat reasonable framerate.

    Happy Holidays and thanks for all your outstanding work this year Alex, all of you guys over at DF are on another level!

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  10. They leaned too much on Raytracing, in my opinion. The game looks barren without it.

    Then again, as paradoxical as it may seem, I'd rather play with it off on a 2080 S. Getting input lag and juddery motion from dropped frames in the areas where Ray Tracing is most active and contributes the most with atmosphere, paradoxically also ruins my immersion by making me remember I'm playing a game where the framerate dips every time I look at an area that has too much geometry bathed by light.

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  11. Does anyone know if you can disable Ambient Occlusion and Screen Space Reflection if you use Ray Tracing ? Seems like they try to do the same thing, it would help performances a lot if we could do that.

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  12. Disappointing to see the game is build around raytracing, the non-RT graphics clearly suffer from it. Almost non-existent SSAO, super low res noisy SSR, low sample count probe GI and tons of light objects missing their pointlight.

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  13. there are definitely some quirks with the RT implementation, but there are also some gorgeous and very impressive results, especially for a big open world game. I feel bad for players having a poor experience, my PC copy of the game has been seemingly low on major bugs…

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  14. They implemented real-time ray tracing and had to tone it down with other technology like DLSS, because they know no-one will play slideshows when they can still have 60fps.
    Sure, we'll upgrade to RT when those cards cost less than full consoles with all parts included and when all games support it.
    Until then, Nvidia can force this RT only onto videos like this, since PC-focused channels like Hardware Unboxed and Linus don't play ball to force-sell overpriced garbage.

    Everyone would like to have RT, but the reality of the world is that not many can afford these cards.
    Hard-drives also made a huge leap with SSD, but their price didn't skyrocket like these cards.

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  15. when artificial intelligence is so broken that the suspension of disbelief is continually tested, ray tracing becomes a useless aesthetic tinsel. I would have preferred more development of other aspects of gameplay. Ray tracing does not improve a game when the foundation is weak, and according to this perspective it becomes just a time and money sucking option.

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  16. 9:20 It's weird it really feels like the shadows should be much more defined and darker, they're still way too subtle to make the scene look realistic, you can see how dark are the sides of objects facing away from the light, shadows close to them should be as dark

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