Ray tracing is now available on Nvidia RTX graphics cards – here’s how to get it

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update is now available for download, unlocking the ray tracing potential lying within Nvidia’s RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. The update is available for manual download today, and will begin a wider rollout via Microsoft’s automated service – now powered by machine learning – from October 9.

While Nvidia’s 20-series graphics cards and RTX functionality has been ready to go since launch, Microsoft’s DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) functionality had been stuck in update limbo – until today. With Microsoft now unleashing full graphics API support, games are weapons-free to rollout ray tracing and start taking full advantage of Nvidia’s latest GPUs.

To get the Windows 10 October 2018 Update you need to manually check for updates on your machine. That means either typing “check for updates” in the search box, or heading over to the settings panel, over to ‘Updates and Security’, and from there clicking on ‘Windows Update’. As long as your system is up-to-date, you should be able to click install and let your system take care of the rest.

Nvidia’s RTX technology is now free to fully utilise all of the RT Cores lying dormant in Nvidia Turing GPUs – those found within the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti (and soon within the RTX 2070). With Microsoft’s DXR fully-enabled, Battlefield V and Metro: Exodus will be able to support ray tracing from day one, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider should also be receiving a patch soon to activate the full breadth of ray tracing features.

The update also brings in further updates for Windows:

• Snip & Sketch
• To-do lists
• 3D Powerpoint and Word
• Your Phone App
• Edge updates
• Swiftkey
• Cloud Clipboard
• Search improvements
• Tile Folder naming
• Windows Mixed Reality improvements
• Game Bar improvements
• New emojis
• Sign-in and security updates

“Real-time ray tracing is often quoted as being the holy grail of graphics and it’s a key part of a decades-long dream to achieve realism in games,” a Microsoft developer blog post on DXR says. “Today marks a key milestone in making this dream a reality: gamers now have access to both the OS and hardware to support real-time ray tracing in games. With the first few titles powered by DirectX Ray tracing just around the corner, we’re about to take the first step into a ray traced future.”

If you’ve picked up one of Nvidia’s 20-series GPUs, or you’re simply curious as to the new emojis on offer, make sure to download the Windows 10 October 2018 Update via Microsoft.com or from Windows settings.