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8h ago

Doom: The Dark Ages Adds Path Tracing at Steep Performance Cost

Sharper lighting, more detailed reflections, deeper shadows trigger a heavy frame rate penalty that few GPUs outside the top tier can handle

A screenshot of the PC version of Doom: The Dark Ages, showing the visual impact of the use of path tracing
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Overview

  • id Software released the June 18, 2025 update adding optional path tracing for lighting, shadows and reflections in Doom: The Dark Ages.
  • Extensive testing shows path tracing halved framerates on cards like the RTX 4090 and required an RTX 5080 or higher to sustain 60 fps at 1440p.
  • Midrange GPUs such as the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti fell to as low as 4 fps with path tracing enabled due to steep VRAM usage.
  • NVIDIA’s DLSS Ray Reconstruction integration helps recover some performance but does not prevent major frame drops.
  • Benchmark comparisons indicate Doom’s path tracing demands impose a heavier hardware requirement than other path-traced games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2.