What is Ray Tracing & How to Get it in Gaming?

Ray tracing technology has revolutionized the gaming industry, bringing unprecedented levels of visual realism and immersion to gamers worldwide. In this blog post, we will explore the rise of ray tracing and its impact specifically on gaming laptops. As gaming laptops continue to evolve, incorporating powerful hardware and innovative features, ray tracing has become a pivotal component in delivering lifelike lighting, shadows, and reflections in gaming environments.

It all started with the launch of PS5 and then new GPUs starts coming up with dedicated Ray Tracing cores to render all those high-end, life-like graphics in gaming.

What is Ray Tracing?

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates the behavior of light in a virtual environment to create realistic and accurate visual representations. It achieves this by tracing the path of individual rays of light as they interact with objects in a scene. Each ray of light is cast from the camera's viewpoint and undergoes multiple interactions, such as reflection, refraction, and absorption, before reaching the virtual objects and light sources in the scene.

Here is the demo video showing the before and after effects of Ray Tracing.

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To go deeper into the world of Ray tracing, you should check Nvidia's process and tech behind Ray Tracing.

How to Get Ray Tracing on Gaming Laptops/PC?

Most AAA gaming titles already coming up with Ray Tracing. You just need to Turn in on in the game settings but is that it?

In recent years, gaming laptops have embraced the advancements in ray tracing technology, aiming to provide gamers with a desktop-level gaming experience in a portable form factor. Manufacturers have integrated dedicated ray tracing-capable GPUs into gaming laptops, enabling them to harness the power of real-time ray tracing for enhanced visual effects and realism.

But here is the catch, you need compatible hardware to get the Ray Tracing effect in your gameplay. Not every GPU or CPU can handles the heavy processing of Ray tracing.

Hardware requirements for Ray Tracing on Laptops:

Implementing ray tracing on gaming laptops requires specific hardware capabilities. The key component is a GPU that supports ray tracing, such as NVIDIA's RTX series or AMD's RDNA 2 architecture.

These GPUs feature specialized ray tracing cores or hardware accelerators that handle the complex calculations required for real-time ray tracing. Additionally, a powerful CPU, ample RAM, and a high-speed storage solution are crucial to ensure smooth performance and minimize loading times when handling the increased computational demands of ray tracing.

If you are in the market to shop for a new gaming laptop and want all the latest hardware, you should be looking at the best gaming laptop under $2000. Even if you don't have that much budget yet, you can consider gaming laptops under 1500. Here are some solid recommendations for the best gaming laptop under 1500 that comes with RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 GPU coupled with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 processor and 16GB-64GB DDR5 RAM.

Now that is the kind of hardware you need in your gaming laptop or PC for getting that gorgeous Ray Tracing effect.

Here are other GPUs that support Ray Tracing:

1. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

2. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

3. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090

4. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

5. AMD RX 6800 XT

6. AMD RX 6900 XT

7. AMD RX 6700 XT

Excited to Experience Ray Tracing?

Gaming laptops have eagerly embraced ray tracing, with manufacturers integrating dedicated ray tracing-capable GPUs into their devices. This advancement allows gamers to enjoy desktop-level graphics and lifelike visual effects on the go. However, it is important to consider the hardware requirements and performance trade-offs associated with ray tracing on laptops. A powerful GPU, CPU, ample RAM, and high-speed storage are essential to ensure smooth performance and optimal gaming experiences.

Most of the latest, mid-range gaming laptops can give you Ray tracing experience and it gets even better on a big 4K or even QHD 1440p gaming monitor. Simply connect the monitor to a gaming laptop and experience the life-like games right on your screen. Whether it's exploring fantastical landscapes or engaging in intense battles, ray tracing on gaming laptops is shaping the future of gaming and raising the bar for visual excellence.