First AAA Game To Require Ray Tracing GPU Could Ship In 2023

As developers increasingly support ray tracing technology, there will be a time when AAA titles start requiring ray tracing GPUs if the player wants to play them on a PC. That may not happen until a few years, though. According to a prediction by NVIDIA’s Morgan McGuire, that may not happen until 2023.

The ray tracing technology has long been used for non-real-time rendering but it has only recently started being used for real-time rendering. This allows developers to bring realistic lighting to their games as they can simulate the physical behavior of light. NVIDIA obviously offers GPUs that come with ray tracing support, so it’s uniquely positioned to take advantage of the industry’s shift to this technology.

McGuire tweeted out his prediction about the first AAA game requiring a ray tracing GPU to arrive in 2023. He also pointed out that almost all major gaming platforms will offer accelerated ray tracing by then.

That’s an interesting prediction by McGuire since it hints at other gaming platforms because ray tracing support has already been confirmed for both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Scarlett. So this might point to the Nintendo Switch, for example, even though it seems like a long shot for now.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gaming
Tags: NVIDIA, ray tracing