Can RTX 3080 run path tracing?

Don't worry just yet, Nvidia hasn't discarded its previous gen just yet

Sebastian Kozlowski

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Nvidia keeps expanding what its graphics cards can achieve with the ever-expanding library of tech it has to offer. That now includes what DLSS brings to the table and ever-expanding technology that improves the looks and performance of your games. With that we see, can the RTX 3080 run pathtracing?

Cyberpunk 2.0 release brought a lot of new features and upgrades to the game. Preparing it for its one and only DLC, Phantom Liberty release, even more graphics tech has been put into the game. That includes the likes of DLSS 3.5, but also the upgrade to ray tracing with path tracing. So does that limit what GPUs can use it like frame generation or is it more available let’s find out.

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What is path tracing?

Path tracing is the next step in lighting in graphics it’s essentially an upgrade to the current ray tracing ability. Current ray tracing improves basic rasterization look by following the light as it interacts with the world. Instead of general, global illumination, it uses a sort of string between your eye (or camera location) and the light. That means it knows if it’s being interrupted by other objects or where it should be. Enabling each light to be viewed from many points rather than a single.

Now path tracing steps that up even further, tracing each light ray individually. Scattering and simulating the light as it might do in the real world. Leading to an even more immersive environment, but all that computation takes a lot of power to run. With the possibility that even the best GPUs around currently might not be capable of getting high frame rates with it.

Can an RTX 3080 run path tracing?

Simply put yes, the RTX 3080 is capable of running path tracing. The performance you get might vary quite a bit as it is even more intensive than ray tracing, as we tested with an RTX 4060, we see a much stronger impact. Even at 1080p path tracing drops the performance to a 19FPS average compared to 34FPS with ray tracing, and an 83 average without.

Even the power of the 3080 is unlikely to keep the performance up. That’s where the release of DLSS 3.5 comes in, compared to 3.0 it is available to an RTX card as it does not require frame generation. This is rather confusing but can offer a small boost over DLSS 2.0 even if it’s not quite the ability of 3.0 it still is a great option to improve it if you’re after some nice lighting in your new game. It certainly does require the best GPU for Cyberpunk to get the most out of it.