Have yourself a merry, ray-traced Christmas

At this time of year, the sensible gamer’s thoughts turn to upgrades, and the latest graphics cards from Nvidia will be foremost in their mind. Christmas is a time of giving, and the gift of ray-tracing is the most thoughtful of all. All those GPU cores work together in cosy unison like Santa’s elves, beautifully texture-wrapping every polygon and frame to bring delight to the faces of all the boys and girls, whether they’re playing Fortnite, Arc Raiders, or Doom: The Dark Ages. It’s a Christmas miracle, and one that graphics cards from Gigabyte can deliver without the need for a chimney, and there's a perfect system available at PCSpecialist to suit any kind of budget.

Ray-tracing is one of the standout technologies enabled by the newest generation of GeForce RTX graphics cards. Ray-tracing simulates the physical behavior of light as it moves through games’ 3D spaces, creating more realistic and lifelike effects such as accurate reflections, global illumination, and soft shadows. This enhances the overall look of a game, bringing a more cinematic and immersive visual experience by simulating how light interacts with surfaces in a more realistic way.

One of Nvidia’s other key technologies is DLSS, now on its fourth generation. This uses deep learning to render the game at a lower resolution and then intelligently upscale it to a higher resolution, significantly reducing the load on the GPU and increasing performance. This can allow for smoother gameplay, even at higher resolutions like 4K. DLSS can improve image sharpness and clarity, reducing jagged edges and aliasing, sometimes making fine details look better than native rendering, and is crucial for making ray tracing playable, as ray tracing can significantly reduce frame rates on its own. DLSS compensates for this performance hit, allowing for high frame rates while using ray tracing.

Exclusive to DLSS 4 and the RTX 5000 series of GPUs is technology that uses AI to generate up to three additional frames for each one that is rendered by the GPU. This process, called Multi Frame Generation, can dramatically increase frame rates - up to eight times in some cases—compared to traditional rendering.

As good as it looks

PCSpecialist’s Luna Elite is the perfect example of a Gigabyte-powered PC that’s not going to completely empty your wallet. It features a fast Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU nestled in a Gigabyte Aorus Elite motherboard, but the key component is a GeForce RTX 5060Ti GPU, which is coloured white to blend in with the rest of the frosty design. With 32GB of fast RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, this is a PC that punches far beyond its weight, and thanks to its fishtank-style case and carefully chosen RGB components, it looks good while doing it.

Soar like an eagle

For a step up the performance ladder, but still without busting your bank account, consider PCSpecialist’s Helios Pro. Named after the Greek god of the sun, it offers blazing performance from its Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and 32GB of RAM, with the star of the show being the GeForce RTX 5070Ti GPU, easily capable of playing 4K games at 60fps and over thanks to the power of DLSS 4. Gigabyte’s Z890 Eagle motherboard holds it all together, and brings cutting-edge technologies such as Wi-FI 7 and PCIe 5.0 to the PC, allowing it to use the very fastest SSDs on the market, and connect to ultra-fast networks.

The master of games

For the very finest gaming PC money can buy at Christmas, look no further than the PCSpecialist Talon Goliath. This hugely powerful machine has at its heart an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D processor—a 12-core chip capable of blistering performance. It’s embedded in a Gigabyte motherboard—the X870E Aorus Master, with all the latest technologies and excellent power regulation - and is joined by 32GB of fast RAM, a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and the mighty GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. This high-end GPU has 16GB of VRAM all to itself, and you’ll need a monitor with a high refresh rate to keep up with the number of frames it’s capable of rendering: 60fps is just the beginning.

Titles that make use of ray tracing and other cutting-edge technologies are among the greatest gaming experiences currently available, and Nvidia graphics cards are the best way to enjoy them. With PCs like these from PCSpecialist, you’ll be able to play all the latest triple-A games to the best of their capabilities, and that’s something worth celebrating.