Do you think ray-tracing drops performance too much on consoles?

Ravens Nest

Ravens Nest

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I've seen some YouTube videos online showing the tricks they have had to pull to get ray-tracing running at a high frame rate on Spiderman Miles Morales.

Other games like Watchdogs 3 running at 30fps because of ray-tracing putting too much of a strain on the game.

Does anyone think this feature will become used less and less because of the performance penalty involved, or do some of the next-gen features of both the PS5 and Series S/X make this performance hit lessen over time?
 
They'll definitely optimize it over time and keep using it, and engines will use VRS and other tricks too. However, likely a lot of games will target 30 fps wit RT and 60fps without in performance mode. Only games with cartonnier/simpler art styles and smaller worlds will do RT 60.
 
clerick said:
They'll definitely optimize it over time and keep using it, and engines will use VRS and other tricks too. However, likely a lot of games will target 30 fps wit RT and 60fps without in performance mode. Only games with cartonnier/simpler art styles and smaller worlds will do RT 60.
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VRS that's a good point that will help by monitoring the frame rate keeping it above 60fps by lowering resolution on the fly, I know that Assassins creed Valhalla had got a patch that uses that.
 
I think it's a feature that looks nice when it's done well but for the processing power it takes it's an absolutely useless feature IMO. There are so many other tricks and processes they can use that look good enough
 
Yes it does because AMD can’t do RT well enough yet. Most likely the PRO versions of consoles will have a capable GPU of running RT.
 
1. ) There's always a new hot feature in GPUs, and it's never robust until the 2nd or 3rd generation. Consoles are always going to have one of those half-powered features, just depends on which year they launch... If it wasn't Ray Tracing it would be something else.

2.) Console devs will make the absolute most out of those half-powered features, and we'll be amazed at how much they've squeezed out of the hardware a few years later... by that time PC gamers will be destroying them on brute force, allowing games to fully utilize that feature with no compromises.
 
MyTMouse said:
I think it's a feature that looks nice when it's done well but for the processing power it takes it's an absolutely useless feature IMO. There are so many other tricks and processes they can use that look good enough
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MyTmouse what other tricks do you think they can use instead of ray-tracing to get the same effect? just interested in what's out there.

KAC said:
Yes it does because AMD can’t do RT well enough yet. Most likely the PRO versions of consoles will have a capable GPU of running RT.
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That's what I think too, ray-tracing isn't fast enough on existing hardware even the 3090 probably cant do 60fps at 4K with ray-tracing all the time, So these rumours of a PS5 pro that would annoy a lot of people who have already bought the next gen 60fps 4K consoles:confused:

SubCog said:
1. ) There's always a new hot feature in GPUs, and it's never robust until the 2nd or 3rd generation. Consoles are always going to have one of those half-powered features, just depends on which year they launch... If it wasn't Ray Tracing it would be something else.

2.) Console devs will make the absolute most out of those half-powered features, and we'll be amazed at how much they've squeezed out of the hardware a few years later... by that time PC gamers will be destroying them on brute force, allowing games to fully utilize that feature with no compromises.
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Seems to be the same old story, the Xbox 360 was a great console with some amazingly optimised games same with the PS3 which showed how powerful it was during the last couple of years of its life.

I think it took PC gaming 2-3 years to start catching up and its nearly the same thing again now.

I mean PS5 has SSD speeds we don't have on PC yet and most PC owners cant afford to move to ray-tracing, DLSS, all these next gen features for now making a console an attractive alternative.

But I saw that DDR5 is coming towards the end of next year and maybe in a couple it will be affordable enough to get a Ryzen 3 or higher, with nvme, PCiexpress 4 and a decent raytracing GPU. (wishful thinking)
 
There is no new console coming out before 2-3 years timeframe. It would be completely stupid to do such a thing.
 
Ravens Nest said:
I think it took PC gaming 2-3 years to start catching up and its nearly the same thing again now.

I mean PS5 has SSD speeds we don't have on PC yet and most PC owners cant afford to move to ray-tracing, DLSS, all these next gen features for now making a console an attractive alternative.
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What? There was no "catching up". PC is and has always run the games better. Consoles aren't running 4k 60fps with ray tracing either. It's simple "running ray tracing". To do it, they are running much lower resolution, less settings, and getting 30fps. There is no catching up here, nor was there ever in the PS3/360 era. Affordability is a completely different topic to either the platform can run it or it can't.
 
OverclockN' said:
What? There was no "catching up". PC is and has always run the games better. Consoles aren't running 4k 60fps with ray tracing either. It's simple "running ray tracing". To do it, they are running much lower resolution, less settings, and getting 30fps. There is no catching up here, nor was there ever in the PS3/360 era. Affordability is a completely different topic to either the platform can run it or it can't.
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In some ways you are right now I look back at my comments, to me though there were exceptions mostly on PS3

The last of us, Killzone 3, Metal gear solid 4, Uncharted 3 and I even remember GTA V before it later got ported to PC looking and performing amazingly well, I also could afford a good PC then so I could make some comparisons with PC games of that era and I was impressed at the time.
(I know some of these are exclusives and they're never was a PC version, but Killzone 3 and last of us at the time of there release I couldn't see a PC game that compared to them graphically)

(Some other titles did look worse than PC though I wont deny that)

For me affordability is where I am now I couldn't afford a good PC to play games with all the settings on high or ultra anymore

(So a series X or PS5 is tempting as the performance is impressive for the money spent)

So I guess 60fps 4K with ray-tracing on console isn't going to be easy or possible on all games, so if it brings game performance down to 30fps maybe games on PS5 series S/X will have to run on these lower settings and other compromises and not have ray-tracing to keep performance high.

It goes back to ray-tracing is too high a requirement it might not be used all the time, but programmers are very clever people I see some jaw dropping stuff appearing later on, who knows they might even find a trick to get RT at 4K 60fps working with some other techniques.
 
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Many of the games on consoles don't even run at 4k native, they're using dynamic resolution with some of them nearly reaching 1080P levels.

However 90% of the people that buy the machines don't even know what any of this means, so it's a non isssue. They just buy the game go "wow the graphics are amazing" and don't know any better.

Igorance is truly bliss in some cases.

Sadly I'm a snob, and I've tried many times to jump to console only only to come back every time.

I think Ray Tracing will shine better in the pro version, but even then it wont be 4k60fps, It will just be Dynamic 4k and maybe 60fps.
 
SirBaron said:
Many of the games on consoles don't even run at 4k native, they're using dynamic resolution with some of them nearly reaching 1080P levels.

However 90% of the people that buy the machines don't even know what any of this means, so it's a non isssue. They just buy the game go "wow the graphics are amazing" and don't know any better.

Igorance is truly bliss in some cases.

Sadly I'm a snob, and I've tried many times to jump to console only only to come back every time.

I think Ray Tracing will shine better in the pro version, but even then it wont be 4k60fps, It will just be Dynamic 4k and maybe 60fps.
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Wow not even 1080p level! that is mad for a next gen console.

I notice in some games a dynamic resolution doesn't matter like a racing game as everything's moving too fast for you to notice.

I saw that with Digital foundry's YouTube videos they have to magnify the image and run frame by frame to show the differences.

I had a PS4 and an Xbox one, I sold the Xbox one because the games were available on my PC too and looked inferior on the consoles (plus SSD and game prices made a lot of difference).

The PS4 on the other hand I buy exclusives for that as i cannot get them on PC, I bet if I could have I would have just waited for that version.

Also is it me but have they only just started to use anisotropic filtering on console games now?
 
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Wow not even 1080p level! that is mad for a next gen console.
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Everyone seems to grab hold of that description and say it over and over like it's some crazy thing we are going to get and it's going to do the impossible. I hate that term. :lol: It's just simply the next evolution, it means nothing. People parrot that phrase way too often, IMO...on everything.
 
Ravens Nest said:
but Killzone 3 and last of us at the time of there release I couldn't see a PC game that compared to them graphically
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Keep in mind lots of these games used various "tricks" to overcome the technical rendering limitations of the consoles, coupled with good art direction. Something Sony's studios are very competent with.

Lots of people are gushing over the Demon's Souls remake, but I bet a lot of the wow factor would disappear if they removed the quite obvious sharpening filter that's being applied. I've seen other Sony games using sharpening filters too to give a perceived sense of clarity and detail.
 
Ravens Nest said:
"This new mode states that it adjusts scene resolution, reflection quality, and pedestrian density to account for ray tracing at 60 frames-per-second"

So as clerick said 60fps will be done via tricks like VRS, but impressive none the less!
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Honestly it's worth it; I don't see myself going back to 30FPS just so I can have a native 4K resolution.
 
Upsides to a closed system. You can get exceedingly clever and refine techniques. I expect as these consoles age, your going to see more and more RTing, not less.
 
Hey Java, if I buy the PS4 version does now because I haven’t gotten ahold of a ps5 yet, with that update to the ps5 version or will I have to rebuy it?
 
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