Since 2020, ray-tracing has been heralded as the next big thing in gaming technology. Gone were the talks about poly-count and animations, and ray-tracing was on a pedestal as the be-all and end-all of gaming. Five years later, there are still just a handful of PCs and consoles that can truly use ray-traced lighting features in their games, without absolutely tanking their frame rates. Five years later, RT isn't dead, but it's no longer the must-have checkbox feature that it once was. In fact, some of the most technically impressive and smoother-running AAA games of the past year have one thing in common: they don't use it.
How does no ray tracing often mean good optimization in such major AAA titles? It's simple. Opting out of this lighting tech is a decision that not only benefits performance and stability, but also gives developers the freedom to focus on something that's been missing from far too many recent games: solid optimization and intelligent design. After all, that's what makes more people able to buy and play the game, even on aging hardware.
Big-budget studios skipping ray tracing is a great thing
It prioritizes optimization and hand-crafted care
When indie developers skip ray tracing, it's rather understandable. Budgets are tight, and priorities lie elsewhere. But when major AAA studios do it, that's when you know that a fundamental shift in mindset could be afoot. Dying Light: The Beast just came out, but at launch, the game does not support ray tracing. Battlefield 6, which came out just over a week ago, skipped it entirely at launch. Still, both games have made this choice for one reason: optimization. These studios realized that most players don't care about perfectly accurate reflections if it means sacrificing stability.
And they're right. Prioritizing optimization ensures consistent performance, higher frame rates, and broader compatibility. Three things that actually matter to the player experience. It also allows teams to focus on visual artistry, instead of chasing tech demos that only 5% of GPUs can handle properly. This shift from "look what we can do" to "look how well it runs" is quietly redefining what AAA polish truly means in 2025.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II's open world is massive and beautiful
Warhorse studios used their own lighting system
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II forgoing ray tracing was not something we expected, but it left us all pleasantly surprised. Instead, the game, built on the CryEngine, opts for another lighting system altogether, keeping things comparatively old school when compared to other engines like Unreal Engine 5 or Ubisoft's Snowdrop. A massive, historically grounded open-world game running without ray tracing might sound like a limitation, but it proved to be anything but. The devs leaned heavily into raster-based techniques, and the result? A beautiful game that runs smoothly even on my RTX 1660 Ti, delivering 60+ fps consistently on Medium 1080p settings with FSR.
That's the upside to good optimization -- it allows the game to stay playable on a huge spectrum of systems, which is a massive advantage for a title that thrives on immersion and exploration. Deliverance II looks and plays great, and even on older GPUs, the game delivers solid and consistent performance.
10/10
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
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RPG
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OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 89/100 Critics Rec: 95%
Released February 4, 2025
ESRB Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
Developer(s) Warhorse Studios
Publisher(s) Deep Silver
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Engine CryEngine
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Stellar Blade's PC port crossed a million sales in three days
Even a 1060 runs Stellar Blade remarkably well
Usually, when PlayStation-exclusive games come over to PC after a while, they are expected flex every new graphical feature in the book, but that didn't happen with Stellar Blade's PC release in June 2025. Instead, the game became a shining example of restraint. No ray tracing, no dynamic global illumination wizardry. Just smart, deliberate visual direction and incredibly efficient use of raster graphics. It isn't as if the game's world isn't filled with glossy surfaces and neon reflections, but it manages to look incredible even without an RT pipeline.
SHIFT UP's team focused on fine-tuning their lighting and materials, and the pay-off was noticeable from day one. Faster loading, smoother performance, and optimization so good that even GTX 1060 cards could run on medium settings with FSR enabled to get north of 60fps consistently. The game sold incredibly well on PC, selling a million copies at launch in just three days, because word got around about its optimization and playability, and, well, its characters.
10/10
Stellar Blade
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Action RPG
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OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 81/100 Critics Rec: 81%
Released April 26, 2024
ESRB M for Mature
Developer(s) Shift Up
Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment
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PHYSICAL
RECLAIM EARTH FOR HUMANKIND The future of humanity hangs in the balance in Stellar Blade, an all-new story-driven action adventure on PlayStation®5. Ravaged by strange, powerful creatures, Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of the decimated human race has fled to a Colony in outer space. After travelling from the Colony, 7th Airborne Squad member EVE arrives on the desolate remains of our planet with a clear-cut mission: to save humankind by reclaiming Earth from the Naytiba - the malevolent force that has devastated it. But as EVE tackles the Naytiba one-by-one, piecing together the mysteries of the past in the ruins of human civilization, she realizes that her mission is far from straightforward. In fact, almost nothing is as it seems...
Engine Unreal Engine 4
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Dying Light: The Beast's lighting leaves no room for complaints
And neither does its performance on older hardware
Techalnd's Dying Light: The Beast was a long-awaited return to form for the franchise. Where the first game in 2015 was a breakout hit, the 2022 sequel had too many pitfalls, from floaty gameplay and reduced gore to bad optimization. Heck, it was the sequel where turning on RT immediately killed my 2070 Super, and although the two must not be related, to this day, I swear I heard a "clang!" from inside the GPU when I turned RT on. With The Beast, Techland has decided not to go forward with ray-traced lighting at launch, instead focusing on visual consistency and fluidity. Clearly, this move has paid off in spades. The game's lighting is excellent the way it is right now, but more importantly, it's running on more PCs than it would have had the entire global illumination system been ray-traced.
WIthout the heavy load of ray tracing, Dying Light: The Beast runs flawlessly even on older hardware, with my 1660Ti delivering 50-55 fps on Medium settings at 1080p with FSR turned on at Quality settings. Visually, the game looks and feels next-gen even without ray-traced shadows making every room you're in darker than it needs to be, because the doubling-down on lighting direction and environmental storytelling is clear as day here. Raster graphics and baked lighting in 2025 are no laughing matter at all, and Dying Light: The Beast only serves to prove that.
10/10
Dying Light: The Beast
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Released September 19, 2025
ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Use of Drugs
Developer(s) Techland
Publisher(s) Techland
Multiplayer Online Co-Op
Franchise Dying Light
PC Release Date September 19, 2025
Xbox Series X|S Release Date September 19, 2025
PS5 Release Date September 19, 2025
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Dying Light: The Beast brings back Kyle Crane, the protagonist from the original Dying Light. Set in the post-apocalyptic Castor Woods, Kyle escapes captivity after 13 years of enduring experiments, hell-bent on revenge. You'll get to use your beast powers, help the people of Castor Woods, and wreak havoc in an open-world filled with horrors of the night.
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Battlefield 6 prioritizes scale over tech trends
DICE has no plans to introduce ray tracing any time soon
It's easy to forget that Battlefield 6 could have very easily fallen into the tech demo trap. The series is known for its jaw-dropping visuals and massive, explosive environments. But instead of burning resources on flashy ray-traced reflections, DICE made a call that has been both surprising and commendable. They've prioritized scale, performance, and stability over post-processing gimmicks. Battlefield 2042 had ray-traced ambient occlusion, and, well, ray tracing wasn't that game's only problem, since it had plenty.
But with Battlefield 6, DICE has released one of the best-optimized large-scale shooters of the decade. The game's baked lighting, highly-tuned rasterization, and its massive 64-player maps feel alive and dynamic, without sacrificing frame rate. In fact, the devs have stated that they have no plans to introduce ray tracing to the game at any time in the future, instead focusing on "performance for everyone else." Even mid-range GPUs like the 1660Ti or an RX 6600 deliver 60+ fps on medium and high settings. In the end, Battlefield 6, in not pursuing technical prestige, delivers a complete, accessible, and stable multiplayer experience for everyone.
Battlefield 6
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OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 84/100 Critics Rec: 93%
Released October 10, 2025
ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s) Battlefield Studios
Publisher(s) EA
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Engine Frostbite
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Raster lighting will never die
Some devs are making the smart call, and players with PCs across all tiers are better off for it.
In 2025, rasterization is a mature, incredibly efficient technology that can deliver results which are almost indistinguishable from ray tracing in most scenarios. Thanks to clever post-processing techniques, the gap has never been smaller, and I can only hope that we're witnessing a healthy correction in the industry where devs realize that shiny tech doesn't always serve the players.
Yes, ray tracing will continue to evolve, and eventually, it will definitely become as efficient as raster and baked lighting. But for now? Some developers are making the smart call, and players with rigs across all ranges are better off for it.