Best ray-tracing PC games 2023

Minecraft RTX Screenshot
Minecraft RTX Screenshot (Image credit: Windows Central)

The best ray-tracing games on PC take advantage of high-end graphics cards to deliver truly lifelike lighting and shadows. These games — and ray tracing in general — require a rather beefy PC to run to their full potential, whether it's a modern GPU from AMD or NVIDIA. If you do have a modern NVIDIA RTX or AMD Radeon card and you'd like to see what it's capable of, we've rounded up some of the best ray-tracing games available now.

Best games with ray tracing

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The best ray tracing games for PC make the most of the best graphics cards, delivering lighting and shadows that are incredibly realistic. On AMD's side, its Radeon RX 6000 GPUs can handle ray tracing. These came after NVIDIA's initial foray into the technology, so they're not quite as adept.

On NVIDIA's side, RTX 20-series GPUs and RTX 30-series GPUs are capable of ray tracing, as are some older NVIDIA cards thanks to driver-level support. If you're interested in getting a GPU capable of ray tracing, check out our collection of the best graphics cards that support ray tracing. The more power the better in this case.

As for games that support ray tracing, Minecraft is a favorite with everyone. It's the best-selling game of all time, and its blocky worlds only get better when ray tracing is added. Minecraft is great for all ages and can be an awesome relaxation tool with calming vistas and soothing music.

If you're more into action, Metro Exodus is one of the best first-person shooters released in recent years. The atmospheric (and often terrifying world) blends perfectly with the gripping storyline, with just enough difficulty to challenge the most adept gamers. Despite it being a few years old, it's still one of the best-looking games with ray tracing enabled.

Cale Hunt
Senior Editor, Laptop Reviews

Cale Hunt is formerly a Senior Editor at Windows Central. He focuses mainly on laptop reviews, news, and accessory coverage. He's been reviewing laptops and accessories full-time since 2016, with hundreds of reviews published for Windows Central. He is an avid PC gamer and multi-platform user, and spends most of his time either tinkering with or writing about tech.