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I am a little torn, too. I built a new machine recently and went with the 2080 (Stepping up to the 2080ti when they become available). On one hand, there is th
by suresk 8y ago
I am a little torn, too. I built a new machine recently and went with the 2080 (Stepping up to the 2080ti when they become available).
On one hand, there is the appreciation for the technical achievement of something that seemed unlikely for a while (real-time ray tracing), plus as you mention, then increased die size. They look to be pretty good for ML applications, as well.
On the other hand, there is the increased price and, frankly, underwhelming results. The only game that uses the RTX feature suffers substantial performance penalties for turning on the RTX feature and most people (including me) just try it out for a few minutes and then turn it off. Is the quality better? Yeah, the reflections are shaper and more consistent when changing views (ie, aiming down a sight), but they aren't game-changing and are definitely not worth the performance penalty.
This generation of cards is worth skipping if you aren't building a new computer.
- Konnstann 8y agoBuilt mine with a 2080 as well, was able to get one for $700 which is about the same as a 1080ti which was my original plan. RTX doesn't matter for me but the deep learning enhancements and their effects on frame rates are interesting.
- sneakernets 8y agoCall me Debbie Downer, but I'm still of the opinion that real-time raytracing has yet to prove itself. Most of the examples I've seen achieve effects which have been imitated by faster, more portable techniques for years, and - for the most part - have been still scenes with static lighting, which hasn't been a problem since Quake 2.
- Wowfunhappy 8y agoI'm kind of with you, partially. Game devs have gotten really, really good at faking reflections. It's not always accurate to real life, but I don't notice. I personally do think the raytracing footage we've seen is a significant step up, however.
- sneakernets 8y agoOh no doubt that it is, but games artists have made pretty convincing imitations of it for so long now that to see a real difference would require removing all the previously bespoke baked-in details. I'm sure artists are simultaneously relieved and saddened by this. However, nothing will be the step up that bumpmapping brought to the table. Doom 3's textures look like garbage with that disabled, due to the bump/normalmapped greebles all over them. Everything looks like clay or cardboard.
- suresk 8y agoHaving played the same game in both modes, there are definite improvements to the quality with this method. Like I said, in most situations without ray tracing, when you do things like look down the scope of a gun, the reflections are lost, but not with RTX. The reflections are also much crisper and more dynamic. That said, this comes with a pretty big cost, both in $$$ and performance. If this could be accomplished without the substantial performance hit that it seems to come with, then it would be fairly impressive and worth the $$$.
- derefr 8y agoI'm betting the real killer app will be a game that centers around environments with lots of liquid-solid transitions. Maybe you'd manipulate and move various liquid and gel materials around in zero-gravity, or something. Maybe an "infinidistillery" sequel to Infinifactory. Or, come to think of it, a "Half-Life 3: Portal 3" where you use gravity+portal+various paint (and other liquid) guns, on an alien ship and in space, would make a lot of sense...