Nvidia Graphic Card : RTX vs GTX

Introduction

GTX interpreting Giga Texel eXtreme Shader, uses Rasterisation technique for rendering graphics.

In contrast to Ray Tracing, graphic rendering is accomplished by rasterisation technique where the 3D object is converted into 2D frame (from camera angle) which is then processed by shaders to determine colors, textures and lightning effects. This process is done 50 to 60 times per second to provide the desired result.

Rasterisation has several limitations because it can’t accurately track how light shall travel, bounce off, refract or reflect off of a certain object within a certain scene.

What is Ray Tracing ?

In 3D computer graphics, Ray Tracing is the concept tracking each and every light ray from the camera to the light source hitting several In-game objects on the way.

RTX or Ray Tracing eXtreme Texel Shader traces light rays to render graphics. Ray Tracing involves the concept of tracing every single beam of light ray from your camera angle to what it hits or passes through to determine how it changes color or angle and then where it ends up.

For added realism whatever the ray bounces off, absorbs or defuses the light, the ray tracing algorithm can take these additional effects into account so any refraction effects or shadows are displayed accurately.

Is ray tracing possible on GTX !?

Yes, with the new Nvidia GPU drivers ray tracing is actually possible on Nvidia GTX Series, but they will suffer with performance. GTX GPUs can offer only basic ray tracing with low ray count, while RTX graphic processor can manage much more complex effects.Before you start playing here are the requirements:

1. Windows 10 version 1809 above
2. Latest Nvidia Drivers

RTX over GTX ?

Although new GTX drivers enables GTX cards to support ray Tracing RTX is still has an advantage over GTX cards due to the fact that RTX cards includes Tensor & RT Cores, which are basically separate cores dedicated for Ray Tracing that can cast upwards of 10 gigarays per second, allowing real-time, movie-like lighting in games.

	GTX 1080Ti	RTX 2080
GPU architecture	Pascal	Turing
Frame Buffer	11 GB GDDR5X	8 GB GDDR6
Memory Speed	11 Gbps	14 Gbps
Boost Clock	1582 MHz	1710 MHz
Ray Tracing	Not Supported	Supported
DLSS	Not Supported	Supported
Price	$1000	$700

Given RTX GPUs are fresh in market, they tend to be expensive than GTX Series, but as increasing number of games are being made compatible with Ray Tracing, RTX is future proof. Also there is no denying that Turing is the most advanced GPU architecture.

The RTX models in general have better cores and clock performances which allow the performance in-game to be better than the GTX series. They also feature Nvidia DLSS and ray-tracing cores, which the GTX does not.

Technology features	RTX 20-Series	GTX 16-Series	GTX 10-Series
Turing Architecture	Yes	Yes	No
NVIDIA Adaptive Shading	Yes	Yes	No
VR Ready	Yes	GTX 1660 or higher	GTX 1060 or higher
Concurrent Floating Point & Integer Operations	Yes	Yes	No
Turing NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC)	Yes	Yes (except 1650)	No
Ray-Tracing Cores	Yes	No	No
Tensor Cores	Yes	No	No
NVIDIA DLSS	Yes	No	No

What games support Ray Tracing ?

Few games that does support Ray Tracing are :

1. CYBERPUNK 2077
2. SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
3. BATTLEFIELD 2042
4. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE
5. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS COLD WAR
6. CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE
7. DYING LIGHT 2 STAY HUMAN
8. SYNCED OFF-PLANET
9. WOLFENSTEIN: YOUNGBLOOD
10. METRO EXODUS PC ENHANCED EDITION

List of all games that support Ray Tracing.

How will my GPU perform with ray tracing ?

You can use V-Ray application to check how fast your GPU renders. It includes 3 render engine tests :

• V-Ray — CPU compatible
• V-Ray GPU CUDA — GPU and CPU compatible
• V-Ray GPU RTX — RTX GPU compatible

Compare your graphic card before you buy it.

Conclusion

If you are not pampered about the little details and prefer performance over quality, GTX would be a smarter choice over RTX. Moreover GTX is a pocket friendly choice.

While Ray tracing is a great feature for those who care about graphics. If you want to future proof your PC then getting an RTX card or a next-gen console is your best bet.