Glossary › Gaming › Ray Tracing
What is Ray Tracing?
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates how real light travels and bounces — producing lifelike reflections, shadows and lighting that older “faked” methods can’t match.
How it works
Instead of approximating lighting, the GPU traces the path of light rays as they hit surfaces, reflect and scatter. Every RTX card has dedicated RT cores for this work: first generation on the RTX 20 series, and improved versions on the 30, 40 and 50 series. Newer generations lose less performance when it’s switched on.
The catch: it’s expensive
Turning ray tracing on can cut your FPS by 30–50% or more. That’s why it’s almost always paired with DLSS upscaling, and on RTX 40 and 50 cards with Frame Generation, to win the frame rate back. The heaviest form, “path tracing” (as in Cyberpunk 2077 or Alan Wake 2), is realistically only for the top cards.
Which card do you need?
For light ray tracing at 1080p, an RTX 4060 or 5060 with DLSS is enough. For 1440p ray tracing, aim for an RTX 4070 or 5070 and up. For path tracing or 4K, look at the RTX 4080, 5070 Ti or 5080. See where every card lands in our RTX GPU comparison.
Related terms
GPUDLSSFrame GenerationFPS1440p