Confused about ray-tracing, what's your opinion?

[DraxDomax]

1) First, is Ray-Tracing something you even notice?
Is it a "better" experience or "just different"?

My 2070-S apparently can do a bit of ray-tracing but I can't really look at a game and point the finger on something say "see, this is ray tracing!"

2) I keep hearing, even these days, two generations after the first RTX cards, that ray-tracing is not worth it on cheaper cards. I guess because cheaper cards already struggle with resolution and detail and they can do very little ray tracing details without trashing FPS?

2) Can AMD cards do ray-tracing?

The reason I am asking is that I am fishing for a used GPU to upgrade my wifey's PC and she ENJOYS DETAIL and high resolution. She doesn't notice any improvement above 60 fps (neither do I, TBH). So, for her purpose, I am prioritising "best picture" (ultra settings) rather than "800 fps on CS GO"...
And it makes me wonder if I should look into a previous gen used AMD and save big bucks or insist on RT and pay a premium for Nvidia?

 

[Colif]

My 2070-S apparently can do a bit of ray-tracing but I can't really look at a game and point the finger on something say "see, this is ray tracing!"

1. I had a 2070 Super, I don't think its RT was that amazing and the only place I ever saw it in action was in 3dmark benchmarks. Games I play don't use it.

2) Can AMD cards do ray-tracing?

2. Yes, they can, but not as well as Nvidia as they started in answer to Nvidia doing it.

There are better reasons to buy an AMD card, they all have more VRAM than most Nvidia cards and that is something that will become a problem with newer games going forward/ More vram = higher quality images. Better looking. 8gb is a problem going forward.

I have an AMD RX 7900 XT, it has RT but I still don't have any games that uses that feature.

 

[ZedClampet]

The ray tracing shadows are a joke. I can't even tell a difference. I took a screenshot with them on and one with them off, and it was just a big nothing except for a huge performance hit. Ray tracing reflections, however, are pretty cool.

As for Nvidia vs AMD, Nvidia is pretty much better in every way except for VRAM, but VRAM is extremely important. AMD has to plug as much as they can into every card to try to brute force their way to being competitive with Nvidia, but that does give AMD an advantage, IMO. Nvidia just wants to maximize profits by putting as little VRAM as they think they can get away with in each card.

 

[DraxDomax]

Where would you put the RT sweetspot in the 3000 series and 4000 series?

Assuming there's a class of cards where you can't have RT reflections and once you go down that low, having RTX doesn't matter and you can consider AMD and Intel too

 

[Colif]

Its unclear - until they are released - what the capabilities of the current 40 series low end from Nvidia, and most of the 7000 series from AMD, will have in regards to RT.

I think its likely to be about a 4060 for Nvidia as it will be similar specs as a 3070 from last gen. The VRAM amounts provided would tell me if its worth buying or not. 8gb would mean your choice of games would be limited much sooner than if they put more on. 4070 TI has 12gb, 4070 could as well, but most below that won't be so lucky.

AMD RT isn't that bad, its just not as good as Nvidia's. I wouldn't ignore it completely.
As for Intel...

You can get compatability problems with Intel GPU and some game engines not knowing what it is.