Nvidia GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs might be the best, but there's a huge catch

Nvidia GeForce RTX 20-series might not be everyone's cup of tea.

| Updated: Tuesday, August 21, 2018, 17:15 [IST]

Nvidia has finally taken the wraps off its GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs at Gamescom. These GPUs are without a doubt very powerful and something that would attract gamers in many ways. They pack innovative technologies like the real-time ray tracing, dedicated tensor, and RT cores. It also comes equipped with an array of transistors based on the new Turing architecture.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 GPUs might be the best, but there's a catch

Nvidia has assured that the new cards are capable of churning out six times higher performance rate compared to the company's previous generation graphics cards. All that being said, no matter how big the leap is, these GPUs might not be every gamers' cup of tea. If you are someone planning to upgrade your PC, here are few things you should know, which might turn otherwise:

Restricted impact

The biggest USP of the new GPUs is their ray tracing capabilities. This is the first time this feature has made its way to consumer graphics cards. The new feature adds cinematic experience to the gameplay processing the lights, shadows, and lights in up to 4K resolution. Nvidia joined forces with EA to give a demo of how ray tracing can be enabled in a game.

Even if ray tracing is the magnum opus for graphics technology, its impact to the gaming community will be very restricted, at least for now. The new tech is undoubtedly exciting for gamers, but it will be available for a limited number of games. We can expect gaming firms to bring titles with this technology in the coming years.

Considering the fact that the most high-end games on Steam aren't new but run well on hardware that churns out moderate power, the new RTX 20 series could be an overkill in terms of power. Unless a user wants to push it to higher frame rates in 4K resolution, the power of the new cards will go in vain.

If you are someone who makes do with a high-end GTX 10 series graphics card, you wouldn't notice a whole lot of performance boost. The upgrade will also not make any difference if you are more inclined towards competitive-style games where lights, shadows and reflections aren't a point of concern.

We might get games that support ray tracing in the future. But expecting these games to drop soon after the advent of the new technology will be asking for too much. We still have few years ahead of us to witness the complete adoption of this new technology.

VR still a distant reality

Another touted feature of the new RTX GPU is its enhanced support for virtual reality. Nvidia is offering the VirtualLink standard that lets users connect VR headsets to the PCs using a single USB-C cable. This allows for a simple experience for people willing to adopt VR. But, this doesn't necessarily mean that the manufacturers will support this feature.

Even though all the cards built on Turing architecture support the VirtualLink, it doesn't mean all manufacturers will be providing the USB-C and DisplayPort 1.4 port for 8K content. To fully leverage the new tech, users will have to get their hands on a new VR headset that has support for VirtualLink and wait for 8K content to be easily accessible.

Virtual reality will be a huge thing in a few years, but then again the new cards will be dated when the time arrives. The technology might pay off in the long haul but doesn't make a lot of sense shelling out a fortune for something that cannot be used to its full potential.

Could be an overkill

With the launch of new cards, you might be able to secure few deals, but that could be a better investment in the future maybe unless you are willing to completely overhaul your gaming rig. This includes a new 4K monitor tailor-made for gaming, new VR headsets with support for VirtualLink, and games that use the ray tracing technology.

Nvidia sure has a future roadmap for its RTX graphics cards. But, it probably isn't the right time to invest in the latest lineup. Also, this is the first line of consumer RTX cards, so making a blind purchase without analyzing the real-world benchmarks and reviews isn't a smart thing to do.

If you have already made up your mind to get one of the new RTX graphics cards, it might not be completely wrong, but an investment that would pay off after some years. But for most of the gamers around, this could be going overboard without an ample amount of resources.