Microsoft’s Windows 10 October update is finally here. Its availability heralds the much anticipated DirectX Ray-tracing (DXR) API that is needed to enable NVIDIA’s ray-tracing technology on its GeForce RTX series graphics cards.
In light of the Windows 10 October update, NVIDIA also just released the current GeForce 416.16 driver. The new driver will fully and officially support the DXR API. As a recap, ray-tracing is a light-altering technology that is usually used to add an extra depth of realism inside a game.
It’s not a new technology by any measure of the term. In the case of NVIDIA, the GPU company is leveraging on ray-tracing by taking it to next step by making it react within an in-game environment in real-time.
Specifically, only Turing-powered graphics cards can enable ray-tracing, simply because the GPU is the only architecture equipped with the necessary RT Cores to run it. In other words, you’ll definitely need a GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti if you’re going to want to enable ray-tracing.
As you may remember from an earlier report, NVIDIA’s RTX technology will be supported by several game titles, including triple-A titles such as Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. However, the game’s developer still needs to update its game title with the necessary patch in order for it to be activated. At least, for game titles that were launched before the update.
If you haven’t gotten the Windows 10 October update, it’s probably because Microsoft is rolling out the update in batches. So, if you haven’t been prompted by your copy of Windows 10, don’t worry. You’ll definitely be getting the update soon.
(Source: Windows Blog, NVIDIA Blog, MSDN)
