Battlefield V Real-Time DXR Ray Tracing Performance Tested

Real-time ray tracing is finally here and now we're exploring how it looks and performs in the first game to support it fully: Battlefield V. In this article we're not only benchmarking the three GeForce RTX cards across the ray tracing presets in the game, but we've got some great comparisons for you to show exactly the difference between RTX and RTX off.

We've already touched on the Battlefield V's GPU performance and we found that it runs pretty well. Nvidia's new RTX cards are particularly well, with something like the RTX 2070 being able to play at above 120 FPS at 1080p, or well above 80 FPS at 1440p. Naturally, the RTX 2080 is a beast at both those resolutions, with framerates above 140 FPS.

But now we have a lot of tracing in the battlefield. Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, but we've seen plenty of reports, we've seen plenty of reports, we've seen an early demos, suggesting we're looking at a 1080p 60 FPS experience at best.

So how does the final version stack up? We'll get you in a moment, I'm not going to be spoiled for you just yet …

In order for Battlefield V to support ray tracing, you need to download the Windows 10 October 2018 update version 1809 which adds support for Microsoft's DirectX Ray Tracing technology, or DXR. This is a problem, but Microsoft has just resumed the rollout now. You will also need to update the latest version of 16GB patch, and install Nvidia latest GeForce 416.94 drivers.

Once that's done, load the game, enable DirectX 12, then enable DirectX Ray Tracing Reflections. From there you'll have access to four preset options for DXR: Ultra, High, Medium and Low settings. If you just use the presets rather than custom settings, the corresponding DXR mode will be selected.

You will not only be using GameWorks to integrate ray tracing, instead sticking to a basic, cross-vendor DirectX Ray Tracing implementation. RTX, which is Nvidia 's ray tracing technology platform, which is essentially what translates DirectX ray tracing requests, into the GPU can actually work with.

So how does DXR actually look in Battlefield V? Above is a direct comparison of the four presets, and the first thing you should notice is there is a difference between Ultra and Low, but there is no difference between Ultra and Medium. In fact, there is no difference between Ultra, High and Medium settings for DXR reflections, and it's not just in this scene. We tested several other sections of the game and could not find any difference.

DXR modes: Ultra, which applies the full complement of ray tracing reflections in the game, and a cut low mode for better performance. Both the low and ultra modes apply to the subject, but it is only in the style of the subject.

You'll spot in this scene that the ultra mode of the vehicle will look muddy surface in the front, and some of the distance. Switch to low, and the reflections disappear on your gun, leaving just reflections from the water's surface.

From what we can tell, this is the main difference between the two modes. The quality of reflections in terms of resolution, accuracy and distance is unaffected, so you're going to get the same experience if you're playing on Ultra or Low. Switching it down affects the amount of materials that RTX reflections apply to. Ultra, in my opinion, gives a better and more realistic presentation and really shows off the quality of ray tracing.

One of the main questions we've seen so much about the game's standard reflection mode, screen space reflections? Undoubtedly provide a more realistic presentation, with far greater reflection accuracy and resolution, and of course the ability to reflect that is not necessarily in your field of view.

Screen space reflections are only able to reflect objects present on the screen, so that they are outside the field of view. You will notice in the DXR off, which causes a passing of the area, like the falling leaf particles or other people. This was the same in Battlefield 1, so it's not like DICE has specifically downgraded reflections in BFV only to upgrade them again with ray tracing. These issues are not present with ray tracing, instead you get nice, accurate reflections in real time.

But there are some issues with DXR as well. In this scene with a large puddle, DXR seems to be reflecting godray type lighting effects that do not actually exist in the non-reflected world. One of these effects is also bizarrely cut off. The reflection on the surface of your gun, which is quite low, with almost a video encoded blockiness to the effect, even at 4K. In fact, I'd say that the quality of these reflections is very good.

It is also worth pointing out that the effects of the game are usually only as good as those of the game. This means that you are not in an area with reflective surfaces, you are not getting any benefit from DXR.

Benchmark Time

Let's talk performance. And here's where it all falls apart for ray tracing, because performance is absolutely horrendous even if you have a flagship RTX 2080 Ti. And just wait until I show you the results of the RTX 2070, because it's … well you'll see in a moment.

Nvidia's RTX cards running on a Core i7-8700K test rig, and we tested at both 1080p and 1440p. For reasons that will soon become apparent, we did not bother testing at 4K. All other settings were set to Ultra, and we only tested the Ultra and Low DXR settings, as well as DXR Off. There was no difference between Ultra, High and Medium for DXR reflections.

Our test run was an intensive part of the single player with lots of reflective areas, we also did some spot tests in multiplayer, but it was hard to get consistent, accurate results only testing in the multiplayer part of the game. In any case, we did not see any significant performance differences between single player and multiplayer in similar environments.

These first results are with the fastest gaming GPU you can buy today, the RTX 2080 Ti, and it's not so pretty. At 1080p, the game comfortably runs at 150 FPS with DXR. In other words, performance is cut to a third. Switching down to the Low Mode does not let things go, we're still facing half the framerate we once had. And even with an RTX 2080 Ti, it's only at low DXR settings at 1080p that we're looking at average framerates above 60 FPS.

Then at 1440p, it's nightmare territory. Using the Ultra DXR mode, performance is roughly one of DXR off, while the framerate is more than halved using the low fashion. Neither setting can deliver 60 FPS with an RTX 2080 Ti. The game is smooth and very enjoyable with DXR off at 1440p with this flagship GPU, but with DXR on, it's not a walk in the park situation.

Lets move to the RTX 2080.

We're only creeping above 60 FPS on average at 1080p with the low DXR mode. Ultra mode, which in this case delivers around 40 FPS, an unacceptable mark for a first person shooter like this, even in single player. At 1440p the RTX 2080 delivers to 47 FPS average using the low DXR mode compared to over 100 FPS with DXR disabled.

What we have the most fear of, the RTX 2070 is the laughable. The ultra mode delivers 30 FPS @ 1080p, down from 110 FPS with DXR disabled. And with the low mode we're unable to load at 60 FPS average. The game is completely unplayable at 1440p with DXR on an RTX 2070 in our opinion.

It is interesting to note here that we are RT core limited here. The higher the resolution, the higher the performance using the Ultra DXR mode, to the point where 4K is more than 4x faster than DXR off. This also plays out when we checked the power consumption: the cards were running at constant power with DXR on, because the regular CUDA cores are being underutilized at such a low framerate.

Now, real time ray tracing is a significant graphical achievement, it's something that has been impossible to produce on a single GPU before, and is likely to become the future of the graphics industry. But right now …

The degree to which performance is reduced in the environment is however. Wet, muddy areas are the most heavily impacted. Playing in the city of Rotterdam in multiplayer mostly had shiny reflective surfaces, so the performance was not as bad as in our benchmark runs, but we're still facing the framerate with the ultra mode. And then snowy areas seem to be the least affected with relatively good performance, namely above 80 FPS at 1080p with DXR on a 2080 Ti, if you can count that as good.

When it comes down to it, DirectX Ray Tracing and this first generation of RTX GPUs has played out exactly as expected. It was looking like it would be terrible, and it was terrible. Just judging from the demo footage, you can get it now, and it does not look like it's more significant steps towards getting faster.

Now, real time ray tracing is a significant graphical achievement, it's something that has been impossible to produce on a single GPU before, and is likely to become the future of the graphics industry. But right now, there is no reason to allow ray tracing in Battlefield V, because the performance hit is so severe it impacts the experience massively.

We're in a situation where the RTX 2080 is only somewhat playable with DXR enabled at 1080p, while 1440 is borderline and 4K is out of the question. Then with the RTX 2080 you could be able to scrape with the low mode at 1080p, RTX 2070 is not suitable for ray tracing at all. And that's just looking at DXR performance on its own.

With DXR disabled the game looks great and runs at excellent framerates with RTX cards. We're talking well above 100 FPS on all three cards at 1080p. 1440p is also very playable at high framerates on the RTX 2070, and you can enjoy 4K gameplay, especially on the 2080 Ti.

Going beyond the raw performance and comparisons in Battlefield V, GeForce RTX cards.

In practice, I do not see gamers moving with FPS with the still visually impressive. The quality improvement of DXR reflections is nice, but you will be hard pressed for the difference in fast paced motion. Screen space reflections, while not perfect if you're stuck at a puddle for hours, a decent job of approximating reflections at a respectable performance cost. And when you're more focused on running around shooting enemies, I'd say it's almost impossible to tell the difference between SSR and DXR reflections.

Going beyond the raw performance and comparisons in Battlefield V, real-time tracing with GeForce RTX cards, with Nvidia using GTX predecessors . It was meant to be a game changing feature, something that would revolutionize your gaming experience with crazy levels of visual quality.

At least with Battlefield V, the quality improvement does not come anywhere near the bottom of the game. RTX in this game is not a reason to buy RTX cards. When you spend the big bucks on RTX 2080 Ti ($ 1200), you'll be playing this game or any other game at more than 100 FPS at 1440p with all the eye candy turned on. You need to get 60 FPS at 4K, let alone on 1080p.

For real time ray tracing to become the future of graphics technology, we need more computing power. Specifically, we need more RT Cores in NVIDIA's GPU architecture, because the 68 cores provided with the RTX 2080 allow for 10 Gigarays per second is not cutting it. This technology may be used in the future, but consumers should not be paying a premium for their PCs.

Nvidia is understandably excited. They released this short behind-the-scenes video for the DXR launch showcasing their work along with EA and DICE to deliver ray tracing effects in Battlefield V. Perhaps a RTX 280 Ti SLI rig will do nicely (not a purchase recommendation).

And honestly, Nvidia should be ready for their new GPUs. It's all about new features, but buyers are going to be disappointed when they buy a $ 1,200 product. If ray tracing had been presented in the future, rather than a feature of the future, it would be much easier to swallow it.

The RTX 2070 deserves a special mention, because this card can be used as a compatible ray tracing. Delivering performance barely over 30 FPS at 1080p with DXR reflections set to low, it's clear that 36 RT cores and 6 gigarays per second ray tracing performance does not cut it for real time ray tracing. We'd be bitterly disappointed if we bought an RTX 2070 for ray tracing, only to be left with that sort of performance.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Metro Exodus. Everything we've seen from DXR demos we're facing a similar performance penalty to Battlefield V, for a similar small increase in quality. We'll test those games with us, but we would not be better off.

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