Red Dead Redemption 2’s PC version lacks ray tracing

Why it matters: Just over one year after it arrived on consoles, Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on the PC tomorrow (November 5). If you’ve seen any of the trailers, you’ll know it looks fantastic on the platform, though it is missing one feature some people expected: ray tracing.

As it did with GTA V, Rockstar Games took its time before porting Red Dead Redemption 2 over to the PC, but it looks like it’ll be worth the wait. With support for 8K resolutions, HDR, widescreen, and multiple monitor setups, this could be one of the best-looking PC games of the year, though owners of Nvidia’s RTX cards won’t be enjoying any real-time ray tracing effects seen in games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Control.

It appeared that Nvidia was hinting RDR2 would support its RTX 20-series cards’ marquee feature when screenshots posted by the company came with “Nvidia GeForce RTX” logos in the bottom corner. With the images appearing to show some snazzy lighting, it seemed that the Western would be another to support ray tracing. Sadly, that’s not the case.

To clear up any confusion, Nvidia tweeted that the inclusion of the logos was simply a reference to its RTX 20-series products and that RDR2 does not have ray tracing—Nvidia was simply using the opportunity to advertise its RTX graphics cards.

Just a heads up to avoid confusion – the GeForce RTX logo here references our GeForce RTX 20 series products. Red Dead Redemption 2 does not have ray tracing.

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) October 31, 2019

Not that a lack of ray tracing will come as a huge blow. Red Dead Redemption 2’s PC version features a slew of graphical upgrades and options compared to the console versions, and dedicated fans are already planning mods for the game.