Can Your Hardware Handle Minecraft With Ray Tracing?
After months of beta testing, Minecraft with ray tracing is now available for Windows 10 players . This is the largest visual update Minecraft has received in its nine years, adding realistic lighting behavior to the game’s blocky, malleable worlds. You will need to meet high hardware requirements to experience the effect for yourself, but it will be worth it.
Here’s a complete list of what you need to play ray-traced Minecraft :
- Minecraft for Windows 10 has been updated to version 1.16.200 or higher . ( Note: if you’ve used the beta version of Minecraft ray tracing, follow this guide to safely revert to a new stable build from that release .)
- Ray tracing compatible graphics card such as Nvidia RTX 20 or 30 series and above, or AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and above. Older GPUs don’t have the necessary hardware to run Minecraft with ray tracing.
- The latest drivers for your Nvidia or AMD graphics card .
- Intel Core i5 processor or better.
- At least 8 GB of RAM.
You also need to download one of the raytraced maps or texture packs from the Minecraft Marketplace, or use Nvidia’s guide to create and download your own texture packs (or transform the maps you created earlier). Marketplace content that supports ray tracing is marked with a blue and white star in the corner, for example:
These maps and resource packs run on public servers and Minecraft Realms. Those playing on consoles, mobile devices, or older PC hardware can join, but only players with more fashionable hardware will see the ray tracing effects.
Launch the game and load it on one of the maps you downloaded, or create a new one with a ray-traced texture pack. Ray tracing will be enabled by default, but you can turn the effects on or off at any time by pressing “;” or by going to Settings> Video> Ray Tracing.
Note that ray tracing requires significant processing power, so you won’t be able to see that far beyond the horizon if it is on. You may also experience a lot of graphics noise and lower frame rates, but disabling ray tracing should fix that. The Mojang ray tracing FAQ can also help if you run into other issues.