Ray Tracing in 2025 A Luxury Feature in a Performance-Driven World.

 

The Ray Tracing Reality Check: Why Hardware RT Still Isn't the Industry Standard in 2025

Despite NVIDIA’s relentless push for hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing (RT) since the launch of the GeForce RTX 20 Series in 2018, the landscape in 2025 tells a surprisingly different story. Nearly eight years after its debut as the supposed "future of gaming," Ray Tracing has yet to become the universal standard for the PC gaming industry.

By the Numbers: Low Adoption in AAA Titles

A recent report from PC Gamer highlights a stagnant trend: out of the top 21 most popular PC games of 2025, only five AAA titles fully utilize hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This adoption rate remains remarkably low for a technology that has been on the market for nearly a decade.

The hesitation is even more apparent in the AA segment. Titles like Stellar Blade, Split Fiction, and Nioh 3 have entirely bypassed the feature. Even heavy hitters like Monster Hunter Wilds have opted for a conservative approach, limiting RT to reflections rather than a full global illumination suite. When excluding eSports and indie hits like Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and Hollow Knight: Silksong which prioritize frame rates over cinematic fidelity it becomes clear that RT is still viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity.

The Regression of Major Franchises

Intriguingly, some flagship franchises are scaling back. Battlefield V was a pioneer for Ray Tracing, yet its successor, Battlefield 6, launched without the feature. Similarly, the Call of Duty series has had an inconsistent relationship with RT, removing it in certain entries only to reintroduce it sparingly in specific modes later on.

The Barriers: Performance Tax and Console Constraints

The primary deterrent for developers remains the immense "performance tax." Hardware RT demands mid-to-high-end GPUs with dedicated RT cores, while a vast majority of the global player base still operates on entry-level or mid-range hardware.

Furthermore, the "Console Ceiling" plays a significant role. Most AAA titles are developed with a multi-platform mindset. While the current generation of consoles supports Ray Tracing, their hardware limitations often force developers to choose between RT and a stable 60 FPS a trade-off many are unwilling to make.

The Rise of Software Alternatives

While hardware-native RT struggles for dominance, software-based solutions are flourishing. Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen (a software Global Illumination system) has seen a massive surge in popularity. It offers dynamic lighting that rivals the visual impact of Ray Tracing without requiring specialized hardware, making it a more accessible choice for developers aiming for a wide audience.

As we move through 2025, Ray Tracing remains in a prolonged state of transition. Its future as a "standard" feature likely hinges on whether next-generation hardware can finally deliver high-fidelity ray tracing at a price point accessible to the mainstream gamer.

While basic ray tracing is starting to seem "ordinary," hardcore gamers are shifting their focus to path tracing (full ray tracing), as seen in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Alan Wake 2, which offer significantly more realistic visuals. However, this technology is further widening the gap between users of top-tier graphics cards (RTX 4090/5090) and casual players.

By 2025, the focus won't be on the "raw power" of computational lighting, but rather on AI upscaling and frame generation. NVIDIA and AMD are competing to use AI to "fill in" missing lighting and shadows, which may be the solution for smoother ray tracing on mid-range hardware.

One problem frequently cited by critics is the visual cost-benefit ratio. Many players feel that the increased visual appeal from ray tracing isn't worth the halved frame rate, leading them to disable the feature for smoother gameplay (performance over visuals).

In an era of massive power consumption in data centers and PCs, running full ray tracing significantly increases graphics card power consumption, a concern for some manufacturers regarding sustainability and thermal management. 

 

 

Sony Patents Tech to Shrink 100GB Games into 100MB via Hybrid Streaming.

 

Source: techspot