No raytracing vs path tracing on in Cyberpunk 2077 using an RTX 4080 and Ryzen 7 5800X at 4K. I think the game looks good either way, and it’s hard to argue with the performance jump of normal rasterization.
No raytracing vs path tracing on in Cyberpunk 2077 using an RTX 4080 and Ryzen 7 5800X at 4K. I think the game looks good either way, and it’s hard to argue with the performance jump of normal rasterization.
not every surface of the universe is reflective, especially not concrete. it just looks bad
forevertired1982
What dlss setting are you using to get that much fps at 4k with path tracing??
CharAznableLoNZ
I run it at 1920*1200 with ray tracing and other upsampling tech disabled. Just native resolution with everything at max on a 1080ti. It shows despite the bugs that are numerous, CDPR put in some work to get it to run well. I’ve never seen it with ray tracing so I wouldn’t know however it looks good enough to me on my old card.
Willdror
Don’t call it “4K” without specifying if it’s native or which upscaling you’re using
NoStructure5034
I couldn’t quickly tell which was path tracing and which was raster until I looked at the FPS lol
Oddball_3000
Which is which?
bobbjoel18
the thing with ray tracing is it’s just eye candy, it doesn’t really change the gameplay at all, so the game is gonna be fun either way, atleast the combat is.
I bet if we compare combat footage, it may be even harder to tell the difference in a high action gun fight instead of just random walking / benchmarking etc because you are focused more so on the gameplay instead of the visuals. Idk if I explained that correctly.
Dylan_TheDon
been playing it on max settings no rtx with DLAA on 1440p on a 3070 getting 40-50fps enjoyably
game looks insane regardless of rtx
ChaosweaverV2
I’d always take stable 60 fps with path tracing over 100+ fps without it. This game for me is all about immersion and that technology adds so much life to this game that it’s worth it, in my opinion.
Vis-hoka
I think ray tracing is really cool, and it is the future, but it’s not worth the performance hit. I still enjoy the game just as much without it. After 30 minutes, you forget all about it.
Until you find the occasional room that is lit like complete ass and then you remember briefly and rethink your choices, but then you forget again. 😂
XXXVI
sure Cyberpunk looks good anyway, still this compressed video on reddit (and possibly the whole scene altogether) doesn’t do enough justice to just how fucking good path traced Cyberpunk looks. On my 4k OLED it’s unbelievable, nothing short of jawdropping
stoyo889
If you have to choose between 4k max settings no RT 60+ fps
Or RT mode with lower res slightly lower settings and lower fps, non RT mode wins everytime imo
RT is cool but until it’s easier to run for most it’s not worth downgrading res and gfx to accomodate
WorstAgreeableRadish
Even on this low res video in a small reddit window, bottom looks noticeably better.
When I play I’ll have to see how high I can push RT on my 7900 XTX and how FSR will look at 1440p.
Alex35143
Definitely not worth the 50fps hit
nekrovulpes
I haven’t tried patch 2.0 or the new expansion yet. But the previous raytracing was real, real hard to tell the difference at all, honestly. I spent hours going back and forth, and the only reliable places you’d notice it is with reflections and a handful of very specific diffuse lights. Most of the times I thought it looked better turned out to be placebo when I flipped back to regular lighting.
I think raytracing definitely has potential as a technology, but it is being sold the wrong way. It’s not an eye candy feature for consumers, not with current hardware capabilities anyway. It’s a time saving tool to make the implementation of realistic lighting on the development side more efficient. The fact rasterised graphics can still look so close in quality is a testament to how good some devs are at “faking” lighting already, but full raytracing as standard would save them time in doing that, which can be spent elsewhere.
DLSS and upscaling in general is something I’m less enthusiastic about. I think it’s definitely true to say it is being used as a crutch these days. It’s understandable as a necessity for consoles, but on PC this is why we pay hundreds to get the most powerful hardware- We don’t want to have to rely on these cheap shortcuts.
Fatefire
My 3070ti is having a terrible time with cyberpunk and it makes me sad
vivisectvivi
I love how you picked the worst place(the market) performance wise in the game to run the test. This place is the bane of me and my 3080
TheDugal
They did a fantastic job with the rasterization. There’s honestly no wrong way of playing the game, it always looks stunning. They even fixed my only real issues with raster/hybrid (glowing npcs). Don’t buy into the FOMO, it’s a great looking game wether or not you have Pathtracing.
MyWordsNow
Split screen video on 720p showing graphics comparisons are lol.
DoggedDust
In one I see more red, in the other I see more blue
Rannahm
I’d love to play the game with RT on. I see some screenshots and occasionally see some clips of people playing with it on, and i can definitely see how good it looks. Unfortunately i do not own a GPU that can enable the feature, however with that said. i’m very happy with how the game looks and runs on my 5700XT. As a 1080p pleb, the game is running pretty well – with the exception of dog town which i see a pretty significant performance loss – with every setting on high or ultra at 60fps, and the game looks absolutely stunning.
theend117
I’m really curious how FSR 3 is gonna do, frame generation on almost every gpu is gonna be a game changer.
DMurBOOBS-I-Dare-You
Ray tracing to me is gimmicky as all get-out. I don’t get the appeal.
That said, I don’t begrudge those who do, but as “features” go in the history of GPU advancement, this one feels really flat to me.
Hyduron
I recorded The Ride with RTX off and again with Pathtracing on.
The gameplay shown in this video really doesn’t do justice to the level of immersion that path tracing brings to a story-focused game like Cyberpunk 2077. I would provide a link to a great Reddit post that compares ray tracing, path tracing and regular rasterization, but the automod will just remove my comment. Simply Google “cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing overdrive comparison reddit” and look for the post on the LowSodiumCyberpunk subreddit.
​
The difference in facial detail with path tracing is so significant that it makes the game look like it’s from an entirely different era of gaming. While the performance drop with path tracing is noticeable, having this tech readily available for gamers is a huge step forward for video game evolution. In a few years, when all consumer GPUs are ray tracing capable at playable performance, development studios can reallocate resources from optimizing their games for the lowest possible hardware compatibility to a scalable real-time solution that they know people have the necessary hardware to access.
​
In the past, game engines were designed with tools to fake the effects of ray tracing, such as global illumination and reflections. This was done because hardware from back then wasn’t able to process ray tracing in real-time. Now that GPUs are capable of processing ray tracing at a hardware level, the methods used to improve gameplay performance are changing. Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation are a great example of this shift in technological methodologies. Instead of faking detail effects (which are much harder to master), Nvidia is using AI to upscale the game from a lower resolution and create frames using information from the game’s engine and previous frames. While Nvidia is at the forefront of graphics evolution, AMD is catching up, and I hope they don’t allow Nvidia to get away with being a sole provider of high-end quality and performance.
​
Source: am game dev, working on Unreal 5
luc1kjke
As always, with such videos, it’s hard to understand which is which without a puddle
NoiceM8_420
Was about to say, this video isn’t really selling me on path tracing, luckily people pointed out the reddit video compression.
ElectroMoe
I wish we had more of these side by sides in this format. Feels like I can track what’s going on in both feeds better than if it was done vertically lol
Currently playing with HWU + RT Reflections and the game still blows me away. Maaaybe one day I’ll replay it with better hardware but probably not. Definitely not going to stomach 30fps for RT OD though. So it is what it is.
Salty_Setting_6401
Top one is Better
NinjasOnFire
It feels like the largest difference is just the sheer amount of light that gets put out by objects.
tyresthatgrip
My issue with path-tracing was the high input latency with FG, but since update 2.0 it has reduced significantly for some reason. Path-tracing for me all the way since then, it’s genuinely a tech preview from the future.
General_Xeno
My 3060 struggles to stay at 50 with Ray tracing on medium in the intense areas and even drops down to high 40s. It still looks amazing.
SoMass
I’ve noticed with the new settings I get so much pop in on certain textures like in the bottom video. No matter lowering texture settings and stuff. It’s really beautiful until stuff like that distracts me like a squirrel.
Rig is 4090, 5900x, 32gb 3600 ram, and 2tb nvme.
Strong-Mix9542
Which is which?
KaosLyon
I’m using the Ray Tracing: Overdrive setting at 4k with my i7 10700 and 4070ti.
It’s mostly 60fps except the busiest of areas where pop in occurs and it dips in the low 50’s.
The drops are negligible, and I refuse to adjust down because it looks so damn good.
toochocolaty
I have a 5800x and a 3080ti but struggle to get 60fps on high setting at 1440p.
HooTigh
Path tracing gives me insane input lag. 4090/12700k. I don’t get it.
nasanu
I would like just one setting with a stable picture. Games are getting worse and worse, popin everywhere, especially for shadows. Can they just give settings for graphics details? That would be great.
Daeom
So just brighter neon lights?
UncleSnipeDaddy
Man I’m so jelly of the people who get to play this with all the graphics cranked…..Cries into non ray traced reflections…sad face
SunsetCarcass
I’d rather play this game with path tracing at 60fps. My PC barely gets 45 fps in rasterization though
Thechosenjon
Funny timing, I installed Cyberpunk yesterday on my 3090 PC for the first time since I last played it in 2021 when it was a bug filled mess. The performance it gets now is pretty great, I was very impressed. At native 4k High with some tweaks here and there I was pushing damn near 100FPS with dips in the 80s. With RT on except sun shadows I was dropping to something in the 40s. With DLSS set to quality it was a very inconsistent 50. At 1440p and DLSS quality, I can get a consistent 70-ish with RT on except for sun shadows and that’s what I am playing on at the moment.
I tried native 4k path tracing with my 3090 for the lulz and was getting a whopping 10 FPS.
r3act-
Video quality sucks
Needabigasstv
I have a 3080 but plan to upgrade to a 5090. Going to hold off playing until then. But I can’t wait.
marcanthonynoz
Why does after burner turn red all of a sudden like yours? Is it because of HDR or something?
McDonaldsSimulatorVR
Man, my first playthrough was on a 30” 1080P monitor (165hz) with a 3080. With RT on I was still over 60fps. I now have a 3070 laptop I play at consistent 60+ FPS at 1080p and a 4070ti that cranks out over 60 with RT on at 4K. The truth? I think 1080p without RT looks just as good as 4K RT. The game looks amazing if you can run it.
DarkHiei
Lol gonna get so much hate for this but I’ve had it on RT Overdrive (not sure what it changes since I can’t take full advantage) on my 3080Ti and even getting 40-50 fps @ 1440p it looks SO good I said screw the higher frame rate. It’s just SO enjoyable to look at and really helps with immersion for me.
47 Comments
too much glow in the bottom shot
not every surface of the universe is reflective, especially not concrete. it just looks bad
What dlss setting are you using to get that much fps at 4k with path tracing??
I run it at 1920*1200 with ray tracing and other upsampling tech disabled. Just native resolution with everything at max on a 1080ti. It shows despite the bugs that are numerous, CDPR put in some work to get it to run well. I’ve never seen it with ray tracing so I wouldn’t know however it looks good enough to me on my old card.
Don’t call it “4K” without specifying if it’s native or which upscaling you’re using
I couldn’t quickly tell which was path tracing and which was raster until I looked at the FPS lol
Which is which?
the thing with ray tracing is it’s just eye candy, it doesn’t really change the gameplay at all, so the game is gonna be fun either way, atleast the combat is.
I bet if we compare combat footage, it may be even harder to tell the difference in a high action gun fight instead of just random walking / benchmarking etc because you are focused more so on the gameplay instead of the visuals. Idk if I explained that correctly.
been playing it on max settings no rtx with DLAA on 1440p on a 3070 getting 40-50fps enjoyably
game looks insane regardless of rtx
I’d always take stable 60 fps with path tracing over 100+ fps without it. This game for me is all about immersion and that technology adds so much life to this game that it’s worth it, in my opinion.
I think ray tracing is really cool, and it is the future, but it’s not worth the performance hit. I still enjoy the game just as much without it. After 30 minutes, you forget all about it.
Until you find the occasional room that is lit like complete ass and then you remember briefly and rethink your choices, but then you forget again. 😂
sure Cyberpunk looks good anyway, still this compressed video on reddit (and possibly the whole scene altogether) doesn’t do enough justice to just how fucking good path traced Cyberpunk looks. On my 4k OLED it’s unbelievable, nothing short of jawdropping
If you have to choose between 4k max settings no RT 60+ fps
Or RT mode with lower res slightly lower settings and lower fps, non RT mode wins everytime imo
RT is cool but until it’s easier to run for most it’s not worth downgrading res and gfx to accomodate
Even on this low res video in a small reddit window, bottom looks noticeably better.
When I play I’ll have to see how high I can push RT on my 7900 XTX and how FSR will look at 1440p.
Definitely not worth the 50fps hit
I haven’t tried patch 2.0 or the new expansion yet. But the previous raytracing was real, real hard to tell the difference at all, honestly. I spent hours going back and forth, and the only reliable places you’d notice it is with reflections and a handful of very specific diffuse lights. Most of the times I thought it looked better turned out to be placebo when I flipped back to regular lighting.
I think raytracing definitely has potential as a technology, but it is being sold the wrong way. It’s not an eye candy feature for consumers, not with current hardware capabilities anyway. It’s a time saving tool to make the implementation of realistic lighting on the development side more efficient. The fact rasterised graphics can still look so close in quality is a testament to how good some devs are at “faking” lighting already, but full raytracing as standard would save them time in doing that, which can be spent elsewhere.
DLSS and upscaling in general is something I’m less enthusiastic about. I think it’s definitely true to say it is being used as a crutch these days. It’s understandable as a necessity for consoles, but on PC this is why we pay hundreds to get the most powerful hardware- We don’t want to have to rely on these cheap shortcuts.
My 3070ti is having a terrible time with cyberpunk and it makes me sad
I love how you picked the worst place(the market) performance wise in the game to run the test. This place is the bane of me and my 3080
They did a fantastic job with the rasterization. There’s honestly no wrong way of playing the game, it always looks stunning. They even fixed my only real issues with raster/hybrid (glowing npcs). Don’t buy into the FOMO, it’s a great looking game wether or not you have Pathtracing.
Split screen video on 720p showing graphics comparisons are lol.
In one I see more red, in the other I see more blue
I’d love to play the game with RT on. I see some screenshots and occasionally see some clips of people playing with it on, and i can definitely see how good it looks. Unfortunately i do not own a GPU that can enable the feature, however with that said. i’m very happy with how the game looks and runs on my 5700XT. As a 1080p pleb, the game is running pretty well – with the exception of dog town which i see a pretty significant performance loss – with every setting on high or ultra at 60fps, and the game looks absolutely stunning.
I’m really curious how FSR 3 is gonna do, frame generation on almost every gpu is gonna be a game changer.
Ray tracing to me is gimmicky as all get-out. I don’t get the appeal.
That said, I don’t begrudge those who do, but as “features” go in the history of GPU advancement, this one feels really flat to me.
I recorded The Ride with RTX off and again with Pathtracing on.
https://youtu.be/h7t_wZFC3oM
https://youtu.be/YHThA1Kxlu4
The gameplay shown in this video really doesn’t do justice to the level of immersion that path tracing brings to a story-focused game like Cyberpunk 2077. I would provide a link to a great Reddit post that compares ray tracing, path tracing and regular rasterization, but the automod will just remove my comment. Simply Google “cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing overdrive comparison reddit” and look for the post on the LowSodiumCyberpunk subreddit.
​
The difference in facial detail with path tracing is so significant that it makes the game look like it’s from an entirely different era of gaming. While the performance drop with path tracing is noticeable, having this tech readily available for gamers is a huge step forward for video game evolution. In a few years, when all consumer GPUs are ray tracing capable at playable performance, development studios can reallocate resources from optimizing their games for the lowest possible hardware compatibility to a scalable real-time solution that they know people have the necessary hardware to access.
​
In the past, game engines were designed with tools to fake the effects of ray tracing, such as global illumination and reflections. This was done because hardware from back then wasn’t able to process ray tracing in real-time. Now that GPUs are capable of processing ray tracing at a hardware level, the methods used to improve gameplay performance are changing. Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation are a great example of this shift in technological methodologies. Instead of faking detail effects (which are much harder to master), Nvidia is using AI to upscale the game from a lower resolution and create frames using information from the game’s engine and previous frames. While Nvidia is at the forefront of graphics evolution, AMD is catching up, and I hope they don’t allow Nvidia to get away with being a sole provider of high-end quality and performance.
​
Source: am game dev, working on Unreal 5
As always, with such videos, it’s hard to understand which is which without a puddle
Was about to say, this video isn’t really selling me on path tracing, luckily people pointed out the reddit video compression.
I wish we had more of these side by sides in this format. Feels like I can track what’s going on in both feeds better than if it was done vertically lol
Currently playing with HWU + RT Reflections and the game still blows me away. Maaaybe one day I’ll replay it with better hardware but probably not. Definitely not going to stomach 30fps for RT OD though. So it is what it is.
Top one is Better
It feels like the largest difference is just the sheer amount of light that gets put out by objects.
My issue with path-tracing was the high input latency with FG, but since update 2.0 it has reduced significantly for some reason. Path-tracing for me all the way since then, it’s genuinely a tech preview from the future.
My 3060 struggles to stay at 50 with Ray tracing on medium in the intense areas and even drops down to high 40s. It still looks amazing.
I’ve noticed with the new settings I get so much pop in on certain textures like in the bottom video. No matter lowering texture settings and stuff. It’s really beautiful until stuff like that distracts me like a squirrel.
Rig is 4090, 5900x, 32gb 3600 ram, and 2tb nvme.
Which is which?
I’m using the Ray Tracing: Overdrive setting at 4k with my i7 10700 and 4070ti.
It’s mostly 60fps except the busiest of areas where pop in occurs and it dips in the low 50’s.
The drops are negligible, and I refuse to adjust down because it looks so damn good.
I have a 5800x and a 3080ti but struggle to get 60fps on high setting at 1440p.
Path tracing gives me insane input lag. 4090/12700k. I don’t get it.
I would like just one setting with a stable picture. Games are getting worse and worse, popin everywhere, especially for shadows. Can they just give settings for graphics details? That would be great.
So just brighter neon lights?
Man I’m so jelly of the people who get to play this with all the graphics cranked…..Cries into non ray traced reflections…sad face
I’d rather play this game with path tracing at 60fps. My PC barely gets 45 fps in rasterization though
Funny timing, I installed Cyberpunk yesterday on my 3090 PC for the first time since I last played it in 2021 when it was a bug filled mess. The performance it gets now is pretty great, I was very impressed. At native 4k High with some tweaks here and there I was pushing damn near 100FPS with dips in the 80s. With RT on except sun shadows I was dropping to something in the 40s. With DLSS set to quality it was a very inconsistent 50. At 1440p and DLSS quality, I can get a consistent 70-ish with RT on except for sun shadows and that’s what I am playing on at the moment.
I tried native 4k path tracing with my 3090 for the lulz and was getting a whopping 10 FPS.
Video quality sucks
I have a 3080 but plan to upgrade to a 5090. Going to hold off playing until then. But I can’t wait.
Why does after burner turn red all of a sudden like yours? Is it because of HDR or something?
Man, my first playthrough was on a 30” 1080P monitor (165hz) with a 3080. With RT on I was still over 60fps. I now have a 3070 laptop I play at consistent 60+ FPS at 1080p and a 4070ti that cranks out over 60 with RT on at 4K. The truth? I think 1080p without RT looks just as good as 4K RT. The game looks amazing if you can run it.
Lol gonna get so much hate for this but I’ve had it on RT Overdrive (not sure what it changes since I can’t take full advantage) on my 3080Ti and even getting 40-50 fps @ 1440p it looks SO good I said screw the higher frame rate. It’s just SO enjoyable to look at and really helps with immersion for me.