It has been a while since Nvidia released the new generation of their consumer grade Graphics cards lineup, the new series was based on the Turing architecture made with TSMC’s 12nm FinFET process. These Graphics cards are called RTX series because of their ability to trace the rays of lights, and due to the fact that Nvidia was heavily banking on it. One of the reasons why they are termed as RTX graphics cards is the fact that these new cards do not offer considerable performance compared to their direct Pascal counterparts. Getting performance benefits over the last generation is the key to making people buy the new hardware, which Nvidia pretty much nailed when they released the Pascal series.
Since the release of these new Graphics cards, Battlefield V is the only game which can fully utilize the RT cores present on the silicon; no other game can do this for the time being. At the time of launch of these Graphics cards, only two games were on the verge of being released which can utilize the Ray tracing technology, the shadow of Tomb Raider was the other game. Tomb Raider at launch did not support the use of the RTX, the devs of the game announced that a patch would be released that will enable its use but they did not announce when that patch is going to arise. We are still waiting to test it. So, only Battlefield V is the game that can output the stunning visuals that light can create naturally, the “Holy grail” of graphics that Nvidia was boasting.
On the other hand, AMD has launched a fantastic bundle of games with the VEGA 56 and the new RX 590, which in theory can increase the sales of these Graphics cards but the outcome is only marginal. Following AMD’s suit, Nvidia also announced that they would be bundling the Battlefield V with every RTX graphics card in the market. The offer is available till 7th January, so if you want to buy any of the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080Ti this would be the right time as you will be presented with the game too.
Now, the most important aspect to consider here is that by enabling RTX the performance hit that you would have to suffer is alarming. The RTX 2080s can run the Battlefield V at 4k 60 at the highest possible settings, the RTX 2080 dips below 50s at times but the RTX 2080Ti gives a smoother 60FPS experience. This is only when the ray tracing is off. When you enable the ray tracing the maximum resolution you can get is only 1080p and the mighty RTX 2080Ti struggles to give consistent 60 FPS at ultra preset. It makes the whole idea of the separate cores that are only for tracing the light rays kind of misleading on Nvidia’s part. We still can not testify it because there is only one game to test hopefully the situation will get better when more and more games enable the RTX support.
Until then enjoy your free copy of Battlefield V with your new Graphics card. Lastly, you would have to check the retailer before buying the Graphics cards as Nvidia has only partnered with a limited amount of retailers. If you are getting the Founder’s edition Graphics cards getting these from Nvidia’s site would be the best option. If you are into the third party cards head over the Nvidia’s promo page scroll down and click the option “shop all” then you will get the option of the third party Graphics cards that qualify for the offer. You can get various deals on these Graphics cards too since the shopping season is on the roll.