User:Suicide machine/Subjective raytracing tests

Game	Is raytracing worth it?	Comment
Amid Evil		The raytraced reflections and shadows are for the most part difficult to even spot (aside from extreme cases). However, the performance was improved quite a lot since the original betas, to a point, where it now can be recommended, despite an overall very noisy appearance (part of the issue with original graphics style, that only gets worse with way more accurate raytracing reflections). Don't buy such a card however for this game - the difference is not worth getting the graphics card for, but it is worth enabling it (especially "light boost") if you have one.
Control		While the raytracing distance for reflections is generally too low in many scenes, the game also uses raytracing for global illumination and shadows which - in my opinion - is actually more important than generally well-handled reflections using SSR and reflection probes. Furthermore, some particle effects are straight-up missing in raytraced reflections, while being present in SSR. The cost of reflection usage is generally high with all features up and running (the price of which can be partially negated with DLSS, especially on higher resolutions), but worth it if GPU can handle it nevertheless. Finally, there is an issue of terrible publisher practices of 505 Games with this game, which just prevents me from straight-up recommending this game.
Crysis: Remastered		With all the technical issues this remaster has and all that the original game was missing, one would think that with a move to deferred rendering and multiple techniques developed for real-time lighting and reflections, raytracing would take the original the next level. Sadly, from all of the new elements introduced, raytracing is probably the one that shines the weakest, while having one of the biggest impacts on performance. There are levels like the famous "Reckoning" or the infamous "Core", where having raytracing can make a noticeable difference, but even those (especially the "Core"), never reach their RT reflections potential, with reflections often being too blurry or too dark for them to truly shine. There are occasional water reflections, where RT can somewhat show off, and some micro detail like glass reflections, but the difference rarely is breathtaking and sometimes isn't even noticeable (but its impact on performance certainly is). Finally, there is also an issue, where RT reflections are reflecting a simplified environment and as such, characters and dynamic objects are often not being reflected at all (for the player character to be reflected, to be reflected, model quality has to be set at least to high, and because of that option increasing culling distance, that in turn causes massive framerate difference). It's an all-around disappointing showcase for technology in an all-around underwhelming remaster, that needed quite a bit more work done with remastering textures, levels, animations, sounds (especially), and a lot more bug fixes.
Cyberpunk 2077		It introduces quite a huge performance hit, but raytraced shadows and lighting help quite a lot in many scenes. Reflections however are generally not very noticeable (unless it's raining... then they are VERY noticeable), but they do still help replace a bunch of extremely low-resolution (even as far as the open-world standards go) cube maps. Still... maybe wait a few more months to see if the game gets patched and becomes less boring, but as far raytracing goes - this is very solid.
Bright Memory		It has some questionable use of raytraced reflections at times (for example it uses it in the intro segment and then drops it for a few minutes, while the entire ground is wet and could use them instead of SSR). There are also cases where raytraced reflections are entirely wrong, missing crucial level geometry like ceilings and walls! It also uses raytracing for AO, which makes a difference for graphics, but doesn't exactly make them look more interesting. If it uses it for lighting and shadows, it is not really noticeable. Still worth it for these few moments when it works, but barely...
Deliver Us The Moon		Generally just enhanced reflections, but due to how many reflective surfaces are there in this game - that actually does matter quite a bit. Seems to perform well as well (although that might change in the last few chapters, which I remember performing badly without raytracing on the previous GPU I had). So yeah, it's generally worth it. As a note - DLSS implementation is quite blurry and when using DX11 it pretty much introduces massive graphical glitches. There is also the problem that the game isn't very good...
Deathloop		On one hand, there are annoyances like having to fully restart the game that only has autosaves to even see a difference, and some areas having such absurdly overblown AO. There is also an occasional issue with AO noise when moving between areas. However, from tests done by gaming magazines, the impact doesn't seem to be very high and the increase in lighting quality, when enabling raytraced sun shadows is definitely there and noticeable (although, as mentioned before - hard to compare directly, as you need to restart the freakin' game). As for raytraced AO it's a bit of hit or miss, but it does it my mind improve the game's aesthetic, despite its flaws. I would however hate fallback for other AO methods, when playing in multiplayer to not put myself at a disadvantage, due to some camping spots becoming very dark with it.
Doom Eternal		Aside from some odd performance issues when changing settings and on startup, this is by far one of the best implementations of raytracing. It's fast to a point, where it's possible to play it without DLSS on 1080p and possibly 2k, it has some really impressive distance for its raytracing. It reflections almost everything, to a point where rifle projectiles are reflected and it does really good job denoising the reflections.... and the game has plenty of reflective surfaces for it to show, although with the game's pace reflections are generally only noticeable when doing exploration.
Ghostrunner		Similar case as with Amid Evil betas (which had massive performance issues), except even worse - if there is a game that you should just not enable raytracing for - this is it. And you should certainly not get a raytracing capable GPU because of this game.
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries		Absolutely not worth it. The amount of grain and artifacts raytracing adds to this game is absurd and it CAN NOT be mitigated to a reasonable degree by using TXAA or even DLSS (and don't even think about using FXAA or lack having AA disabled - that graphics are literally broken). Not to mention the very high-cost performance cost for enabling it. This no doubt takes a title for the worst raytracing implementation I've seen so far. Oh yeah, and Raytracing can't be toggled on the fly (requires full game restart). Oh right and then AO is just screen space and water reflections still use SSR. WHATS'S THE F*** POINT?!
Metro Exodus		Normally that would be a yes with all the raytraced reflections (generally a waste of resources in the majority of scenes with how dirty the world is), shadows, and global illumination, but... with "Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition" around the corner. There really is no point to even bother with this one.
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition		A serious upgrade over original. Too bad sounds and animations still suck hard... but that's 4A Games.
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition		Probably the title where raytracing makes the most drastic and stunning difference. There is only one problem. You are still playing Windows 10 version of Minecraft... overpriced and fill with microtransaction nonsense.
Observer: System Redux		Pretty much uses reflections exclusively for reflections. Thing is - the art style, in general, is very noisy and full of different shading effects and post-processing, so even if raytracing is used somewhere, it's generally only noticeable in areas that are not filled with Cyberpunkinsh effects. Enabling raytracing also seems to affect the vignette slightly. Doesn't seem like any raytraced AO, lighting, or shadows are used (and settings also mention only reflections). You are not wasting much not having raytracing running in this game. Doesn't help that the game uses reflection probes very efficiently as well, further negating the difference between graphics with raytracing enabled and disabled. Finally, raytracing further increases the already noisy graphics that this game has. There are however few instances where the difference made is quite drastic - most noticeably with few mirrors used in the game.
Quake 2 RTX		Not quite sure how much of it is due to raytracing and how much of it is due to locking shaders to the raytraced renderer, but nevertheless - even if the graphics and lighting were to be restored with shaders, raytraced reflections and shadows still make quite a noticeable difference.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood		Oddly enough, yes it's worth it. And with DLSS or Adaptive Shading (the only one that can be used) - you can squeeze a bit more performance as well from a game that already performs great. Although there is a downside that this is Youngblood, I guess it's not as bad as playing New Colossus at least.

To be checked sometime in the future:

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (apparently totally not worth it)