Battlefield 2042 has ray tracing, and it's totally exclusive to the PC

If you can believe that Battlefield 2042 is nearly here, then you'll be pleased -- or maybe disappointed -- to know that the PC version of the game is the only one that will have support for ray tracing.

NVIDIA will be super-powering Battlefield 2042 with support for both DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) for AI-boosted performance, while Reflex technology will take care of your flick movement. Graphics-wise, EA DICE have used Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion into Battlefield 2042, and it's only on the PC.

Battlefield 2042's inclusion of Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion will "accurately adds shadows where game elements occlude light. Be that between a soldier and a wall, a tank and the tarmac, or foliage and the ground". You'll need the GPU chops to drive it: a DXR-capable graphics card, which of course is best on GeForce RTX with its dedicated RT Cores to boost ray tracing workloads.

Even the next-gen console versions of the game on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S will not be enjoying ray tracing in Battlefield 2042 -- hell, they won't even get a 120FPS performance mode. The CPU inside of the next-gen consoles is already outdated, with EA DICE explaining that the jump from 64 players to 128 players is CPU intensive AF, and thus a struggle for even the next-gen consoles.

DICE said in a ResetEra forum post recently: "Something to explore in post launch, potentially. Resolution is not a problem, we are hammering the CPUs with 128 players quite severely, and the CPU requirements to jump from 60 to 120 fps are not trivial. Reducing resolution won't be much of a help".

Battlefield 2042 launches on the PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on November 19, 2021. If you've pre-ordered, you'll get Early Access to Battlefield 2042 a few days early.