It’s Alive!

NVIDIA RTX (Ray tracing) effects are now live in the latest Battlefield V patch for PC players. You are in for a treat, if you have the PC hardware and software to enable it. Even though the effects are currently limited to reflections, it can make quite a bit of visual difference and at least spice up your already sky high eye candy. Here are the basic requirements to enable RTX:

• NVIDIA RTX Series Graphics Card (We tested on a RTX 2080 Ti)

• NVIDIA GeForce 416.94 Drivers

• Windows 10 ver 1809 (Oct 2018 Update)

• Enable DX12 In Battlefield V

Let’s take a look at a normal, 4K screen with all settings on Ultra with RTX Disabled (60-75 FPS)

Now, Ultra settings with RTX Enabled and Ultra Reflection Quality (25-35 FPS)

Beauty and the Beast

At first glance, these comparison shots may look nearly the same. If you look closer, the details in the reflections with RTX enabled are much sharper. Also, the deep blue sky is really punchy with the effect. That being said, this is a blazing fast and intense FPS, where I am rarely standing around looking at the ground, let alone the scenery. It was tough enough to get these screenshots while in matches without getting waxed! Sadly, the performance hit was so drastic, I had to quickly disabled RTX as a whole due to going from a steady 60 FPS to drops down to 25 FPS. The cost is just too high as it sits currently.

As you can see from the screenshot above, this game is already stunning without RTX. Yes, there are some improvements visually but personally, I’d like to see what is in store for slower paced RPG or walking simulator type games where we are taking our time, devouring all the sights and sounds around us. For now, I consider RTX a fancy technical marketing term that still has a lot to prove for those of us who’ve investing a small fortune into a single graphics card..