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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsRay tracing and rasterization are complementary ways to render a game, not mutually exclusive alternatives. Rasterization usually draws most of the frame; a game may add ray tracing for selected effects such as reflections, shadows, or lighting. Those effects can make some scenes more convincing, but they require extra work and do not carry one universal FPS penalty.
How rasterization and ray tracing render a game
Rasterization turns geometry into screen pixels
Rasterization projects triangles and other geometry onto the screen, then shades the fragments that make up the visible image. It is a mature, efficient approach, and modern rasterized games can produce sophisticated lighting through approximations and other rendering techniques. Rasterization is not synonymous with poor or unrealistic graphics.
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Ray tracing queries the scene along rays
Ray tracing sends rays through a scene to find where they intersect geometry and to calculate selected light interactions. In Direct3D 12, the scene representation uses bottom-level acceleration structures for geometry and a top-level acceleration structure for instances. These structures organize scene data for ray-tracing queries; they do not mean every object or rendering pass must be ray traced. Microsoft documents the Direct3D acceleration-structure types.
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Hybrid rendering uses rasterization for much of a frame and ray tracing for particular effects. AMD GPUOpen’s examples include ray-traced shadows combined with rasterized shadow maps, and reflections that combine screen-space reflections with ray tracing. The practical comparison is therefore often between a game’s specific ray-traced effect and its non-ray-traced alternative—not between two all-or-nothing ways of drawing every pixel. AMD GPUOpen’s DirectX 12 resources describe these hybrid samples.
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What changes visually when ray tracing is enabled?
The result depends on which effect the game ray traces, the scene, and the technique used when ray tracing is off. Ray-traced reflections can include objects outside the camera’s view, unlike methods limited to information already visible on screen. Ray-traced shadows or indirect lighting can respond to scene geometry and light placement. These are potential advantages, not guaranteed improvements in every scene: a well-made rasterized effect may look convincing, while a ray-traced effect may be subtle or visually inconsistent with the game’s art direction.
To judge the difference, compare the same scene with the same camera position and settings. Look for a specific change—such as whether a reflection includes off-screen detail, whether a shadow follows nearby geometry, or whether indirect light affects a surface—rather than assuming that an enabled ray-tracing toggle improves the whole image.
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Why ray tracing costs performance
Ray tracing adds work to generate rays, traverse acceleration structures, process intersections and shader results, and often denoise the result. Games commonly use limited ray counts and reconstruction because tracing more rays is costly. AMD’s developer guidance is to trace as few rays as possible while meeting the desired quality; it notes that one ray per pixel can still produce a high-quality result with an effective denoiser. See AMD’s RDNA Performance Guide.
Acceleration-structure choices involve tradeoffs
Structures optimized for faster ray tracing can take longer to build, while structures built more quickly may reduce tracing performance. Microsoft’s Direct3D 12 API reference says the PREFER_FAST_TRACE option typically takes two to three times the default build time; PREFER_FAST_BUILD typically takes one-half to one-third of the default build time and sacrifices tracing performance. These are API guidance figures about acceleration-structure construction—not estimates of a game’s FPS loss. Microsoft’s build-flags documentation explains the options.
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Scene organization also matters. AMD’s 2022 article on Radeon Raytracing Analyzer describes how large, overlapping bounding volumes can make traversal less efficient. In its terrain example, splitting terrain into chunks reduces overlap but increases the time needed to build the top-level structure. The right balance depends on the scene and how it changes during play. AMD GPUOpen’s article, published September 15, 2022, illustrates this tradeoff.
There is no single FPS penalty
The sources cited here do not establish a representative cross-game benchmark or a universal percentage loss. A performance result depends on the game, the ray-traced effect, scene, implementation, resolution, quality settings, GPU, and whether structures must be built or updated. It is not sound to turn an acceleration-structure build-time ratio into a gameplay frame-rate claim.
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How to compare ray tracing on and off
For a useful comparison, change one setting at a time and keep the test conditions consistent. Record the details so a result applies only to the setup that produced it.
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- Use the same scene and settings. Keep the location, camera, resolution, and other quality settings the same when switching ray tracing on and off.
- Record performance measures. Compare average frame rate and frame-time stability; a similar average can still feel different if frame times are less consistent.
- Include the hardware and software context. State the GPU, game, resolution, and relevant API or driver support. Compatibility with ray tracing does not guarantee a particular performance level.
- Report upscaling and frame generation separately. If either is enabled, disclose it rather than presenting the result as a direct comparison of ray tracing alone.
- Check the game’s quality/performance choices. Some games offer different settings for the effect, so note which level was tested and whether the game uses a hybrid approach.
Support requirements are specific to the API and application. For example, Microsoft’s Direct3D 12 ray-tracing sample collection lists a GPU and driver with DirectX 12 Ultimate support among its requirements. That establishes a requirement for those samples, not a recommended graphics card or a guarantee of smooth performance in a particular game. Microsoft’s sample page lists its requirements.
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When ray tracing is worth enabling
There is no answer independent of the game and the player’s priorities. If a ray-traced effect makes a noticeable difference in scenes you care about and the resulting performance is acceptable on your setup, enabling it may be worthwhile. If the difference is hard to see or the performance cost is too high, the game’s rasterized alternative may be the better choice.
Quick Recap
- Prioritize image quality: Try the effect in representative scenes and decide whether the visual change matters to you.
- Prioritize responsiveness or higher frame rates: Compare performance in the same scenes and consider lowering or disabling the specific ray-traced effect.
- Choosing or checking hardware: Confirm that the GPU and driver support the game’s required API features, then consult benchmarks for that exact game and relevant settings. API compatibility alone is not a performance recommendation.
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