Ray Tracing: Games, GPUs and What It Costs You
9 of the 36 games whose graphics features we have verified support hardware ray tracing, and 76 of the cards we track can run it. Steam publishes no ray-tracing field, so titles outside that verified set are unconfirmed rather than unsupported. The question is rarely "can I enable this" — it is "what will it cost me in frames".
What ray tracing costs in frame rate
Ray-traced shadows or a single reflection pass. Comfortable on mid-range cards.
Reflections plus ambient occlusion. Upper-mid-range card territory.
Full reflections and global illumination. Enable upscaling.
Fully path-traced lighting. Flagship card plus upscaling and frame generation.
Games with ray tracing support
| Game | Year | Genre | RT intensity | DLSS | FSR | Rec. GPU score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monster Hunter Wilds | 2025 | Action | medium | ✓ | ✓ | 23 |
| Black Myth: Wukong | 2024 | Action | path | ✓ | ✓ | 23 |
| World of Warcraft: The War Within | 2024 | MMO | light | — | ✓ | 32 |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 2023 | Action | heavy | ✓ | ✓ | 26 |
| Resident Evil 4 | 2023 | Action | medium | ✓ | ✓ | 21 |
| ELDEN RING | 2022 | Action | light | — | — | 21 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2020 | RPG | path | ✓ | ✓ | 26 |
| Fortnite | 2017 | Battle Royale | heavy | ✓ | ✓ | 35 |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | 2011 | Sandbox | path | ✓ | — | 1 |
Graphics cards with ray tracing hardware
| Graphics card | Tier | Score | VRAM | Upscaling | RT verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 | S | 100 | 32 GB | DLSS, FSR | Path tracing capable |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | S | 78 | 24 GB | DLSS, FSR | Heavy RT with upscaling |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | S | 70 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Heavy RT with upscaling |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | A | 67 | 24 GB | FSR | Heavy RT with upscaling |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER | A | 66 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Heavy RT with upscaling |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | A | 64 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | A | 61 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | A | 60 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | A | 59 | 20 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | A | 58 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | A | 57 | 24 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT | A | 55 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti | A | 55 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | A | 54 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 | A | 53 | 24 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 | A | 53 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | A | 52 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB | A | 52 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE | A | 52 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER | A | 50 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | A | 50 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 | B | 49 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | B | 49 | 10 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop | B | 49 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT | B | 47 | 16 GB | FSR | Light to medium RT |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 | B | 44 | 16 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | B | 43 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti | B | 42 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop | B | 41 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT | B | 41 | 12 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | B | 40 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | B | 39 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | B | 39 | 11 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB | B | 38 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT | B | 38 | 12 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | B | 35 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | B | 35 | 12 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop | B | 34 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB | B | 34 | 16 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | B | 34 | 16 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | B | 34 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti | B | 33 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 | B | 32 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | B | 32 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop | C | 31 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6700 10GB | C | 31 | 10 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc B580 | C | 30 | 12 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | C | 30 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop | C | 30 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT | C | 29 | 16 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | C | 28 | 8 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 | C | 27 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 7600 | C | 27 | 8 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB | C | 27 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | C | 27 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | C | 27 | 8 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER | C | 26 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop | C | 26 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc B570 | C | 26 | 10 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A770 16GB | C | 26 | 16 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A770 8GB | C | 25 | 8 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB | C | 24 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 12GB | C | 24 | 12 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop | C | 23 | 6 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A750 | C | 23 | 8 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | C | 23 | 6 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6600 | C | 23 | 8 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A580 | C | 20 | 8 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop | C | 19 | 6 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8GB | D | 17 | 8 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB | D | 13 | 6 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop | D | 13 | 4 GB | DLSS, FSR | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT | D | 12 | 4 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A380 | D | 10 | 6 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
| AMD Radeon RX 6400 | D | 9 | 4 GB | FSR | Light RT only |
| Intel Arc A310 | F | 6 | 4 GB | FSR, XeSS | Light RT only |
The most demanding ray-traced games
- Black Myth: Wukong path RT · recommended GPU score 23
- Cyberpunk 2077 path RT · recommended GPU score 26
- Minecraft: Java Edition path RT · recommended GPU score 1
- Hogwarts Legacy heavy RT · recommended GPU score 26
- Fortnite heavy RT · recommended GPU score 35
- Monster Hunter Wilds medium RT · recommended GPU score 23
Frequently asked questions
What GPU do I need for ray tracing?
Any NVIDIA RTX card, AMD Radeon RX 6000 series or newer, or Intel Arc GPU has the hardware. Whether it is playable is separate: light ray tracing works on mid-range cards, while path-traced titles realistically need an upper-tier card plus upscaling.
How much FPS does ray tracing cost?
Light implementations cost 10–20%. Full reflections and global illumination cost 35–50%. Path tracing can cost 60–75%, which is why it is almost always paired with DLSS or FSR.
Is ray tracing worth turning on?
In games built around it, the difference to lighting and reflections is substantial. If enabling it drops you below your monitor's comfortable frame rate, turn on upscaling first and lower the RT preset before switching it off entirely.
Does AMD do ray tracing as well as NVIDIA?
Historically NVIDIA holds a lead in heavy ray-tracing workloads, and the gap widens as intensity rises. In light RT titles the two are much closer. Compare specific cards on the GPU comparison tool.