Metro Exodus supports ray tracing and DLSS at launch, but more games are still needed

Nvidia continues to champion the arrival of real-time ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) in games, the latest of which to deliver on both fronts is Metro Exodus, due out on February 15 (but the embargo lifts today, so we'll have in-house testing shortly). In anticipation of the game's launch, Nvidia is rolling out a new 'Game Ready' GPU driver.

The newly minted 418.91 WHQL driver promises to deliver an "optimal gaming experience when using DLSS and ray tracing in Battlefield 5 and Metro Exodus," according the release notes (PDF). It also stomps out a couple of bugs. The bug fixes include:

• [Battlefield 1]: Lines appear in the terrain with Nvidia Control Panel anisotropic filtering override enabled.
• [GeForce RTX 20 series]: Event ID 14 error appears in event viewer logs when Digital Vibrance setting is changed.

There are a few things to note here. One is the introduction of DLSS in Battlefield 5, with Nvidia claiming up to a 50 percent performance boost.

"Now, you can play Battlefield V with DXR ray tracing at higher settings, resolutions and detail levels across our entire range of GeForce RTX GPUs, thanks to the addition of DLSS," Nvidia says.

Let's go over that. Nvidia says DLSS is available with the following GPUs, with DXR ray tracing turned on, at the resolutions listed:

• 3840x2160: All RTX GPUs
• 2560x1440: RTX 2060, 2070, and 2080
• 1920x1080: RTX 2060 and 2070

And here are Nvidia's recommended settings for obtaining 60 frames per second:

• RTX 2060: 2560x1440, High Quality Preset, Medium DXR, DLSS On
• RTX 2070: 2560x1440, Ultra Quality Preset, Medium DXR, DLSS On
• RTX 2080: 2560x1440, Ultra Quality Preset, Ultra DXR, DLSS On
• RTX 2080 Ti: 3840x2160, Ultra Quality Preset, Ultra DXR, DLSS On

In Metro Exodus, there are two ray tracing detail levels—High and Ultra. Nvidia says the difference is hard to discern in motion (i.e., actually playing the game) versus standing around just looking at the graphics, and so it recommends setting the dial to High "to benefit from faster framerates." If you choose to enable DLSS, Nvidia claims you'll see up to a 30 percent performance bump.

"The biggest contribution ray tracing makes to Metro Exodus is a feeling—a level of anxiety that creates deeper immersion into the game. The realistic lighting uses the subtle visual lighting cues ingrained in our psyche to deliver feelings and emotional reactions not felt in video games before. It is a level of spooky usually reserved for movies. Ray tracing transforms Metro Exodus from awesome gameplay into a cinematic-quality experience," Nvidia says.

You can find more detailed breakdowns of different settings and performance expectations (and hyperbole) in Nvidia's blog post. We'll have our own analysis later today.

It's nice to see Metro Exodus debut with ray tracing and DLSS support, and hopefully more games will follow suit. As it stands, three fingers is one too many to count the number of games that support both (Battlefield 5 being the other).

If you're ready to install the new driver, fire up GeForce Experience or follow this link to grab and install it manually.