DOOM: The Dark Ages Gets Path Tracing Update, Pushing GPUs to Their Limits

I tested the Doom: The Dark Ages path tracing update -- the difference is night and day but my GPU got hotter than hell

Doom: The Dark Ages is not just a fantastically frenetic FPS to play, but it's also a graphical masterpiece -- blending both the artistic inspiration of so many death metal album covers, and adopting advanced techniques to give your demon-slaying a real cinematic quality. I didn't think it could look any better, but then I got to try out the path tracing patch and my mind was blown. You see, I've seen advanced ray tracing not really add much to games over the past few months. Cyberpunk is still neon-drenched whether you have it on or off, so what can it possibly add to something as dark as Doom? Well, as it turns out, a lot. But at what cost to your GPU? I fired up my RTX 5070 Ti gaming tower and got to testing. Path tracing (sometimes, you'll hear it called full ray tracing) is a new level in simulating light and reflective materials -- let's break it down. With ray tracing that you'd see on the likes of your PS5 Pro, you're getting pretty lights and reflections that simulate the physics of only one bounce of a light ray or reflection. To do more is incredibly taxing, but we're now at a point where gaming PCs are capable of it. Stepping up to the next level, path tracing simulates how light interacts with objects in a much more complex way -- packing multiple rays that bounce directly and indirectly off objects, calculates both reflections and refractions, and even works hand-in-hand with a game shadowing technique called ambient occlusion to provide real visual depth to a scene. Dark Ages was already a feast for the eyes, but path tracing does indeed take it to a whole new level that I didn't expect. The shadows of darker rooms without it could make things a little too dark, but the update brings a new brightness to things without looking like artificially placed lighting. I was expecting this to be barely noticeable, but in reality the difference can be stark. In brightly-lit scenes, that may be the case, but since a lot of the game is gloomy, this is a real path tracing Tour de Force. On top of that, the reflections in puddles (be it water or blood) or the refractions of light gleaming off the many weapons in your arsenal add a real cinematic quality to all your chaotic combat moments. No longer does reflective surfaces or substances look like kitchen foil, and neither do rougher matte surfaces see any light bounce off. Everything interacts realistically, and it is a real sight to behold. Just a quick heads-up on my time specifically with RTX 5070 Ti, though. Path tracing has a high cost to GPU memory and performance, so you're going to need DLSS 4, multi-frame gen and all the neural rendering techniques to keep the frame rate at a playable level for something fast like Doom. Without them, this drops sharply to around the 25-30 FPS level, so please AI trickery is a must-use. During my many hours of testing, I took readings at particularly GPU-intensive moments of the game to gather an RTX 5070 Ti average. That's actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but that is still a hefty hit on frame rate in favor of path tracing. So it really becomes up to you on whether you're a detail hog of a frame rate connoisseur. Based on these numbers, if you are on anything less than an RTX 5070 Ti, it becomes a sliding scale of how much you value that improved lighting and reflection quality vs the performance. I'll have to continue testing on other GPUs to get a fuller picture, but given the average percentage gaps I've seen across them, you'll see a roughly 22% drop for RTX 5070 (with more of a risk of topping off that 12GB of video memory, and the demand on RTX 5060 Ti would just put too much of a strain on the lesser number of Tensor and RT cores. One thing that did alarm me slightly were the increased temperatures on the 5070 Ti. It's not hitting my threshold of concern (180 degrees), and it didn't exceed this for any extended session I had of 3+ hours of gaming. But it's starting to wander a little close to it. In the defense of my GPU, it's gotten unseasonably warm here -- like I just came back from LA, and the U.K. is actually warmer than it was the entire week over in Cali! But regardless, that's a dramatic uplift in performance demand and GPU temperatures. I turned on path tracing thinking it would just be like a 5% improvement for a big performance hit -- flashier lights and nicer reflections that slowed down my demon-slaying antics a little too much. However, I couldn't have been more wrong. Path tracing is the real deal and the difference is stark in terms of adding impressive levels of depth and drama to each scene. The way the lighting realistically illuminates and reflections bounce make every bloodsoaked moment look like the most epic metal album cover you've seen. With all this in mind, is it worth the average 40% hit on your GPU's performance? The answer very much comes down to how important frame rate is to you. I do appreciate that uber-smoothness without path tracing turned -- especially when parrying attacks. But for what it does bring to the table, this is a gorgeous, gory glimpse of graphics going forward.

DOOM: The Dark Ages looks stunning at 8K with new lighting effects - but it almost humbled my Nvidia RTX 5090

After DOOM: The Dark Ages launched earlier this year, I've been desperate to whack it on our 8K test PC and see how the beastly Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics card handles the latest installment of maybe the most iconic PC gaming franchise in history. Due to various reasons, I've not been able to do that... until now. The game has just been updated with some big graphical improvements and better support for the Nvidia's RTX 5000 series of GPUs and their exclusive features, mainly path tracing for much more accurate and immersive lighting, shadows and reflections, whilst also adding in-built support for Multi Frame Generation - an AI-powered feature which I've found has been a bit of a game-changer when it comes to hitting high frame rates whilst also having demanding graphics settings turned up to 11. So, this is the perfect time to load the game up to see what these new graphical features add - and to see if the RTX 5090 is up to the challenge of demon slaying at a resolution of 7680 × 4320. DOOM: The Dark Ages is a game that prioritises both speedy gameplay and stunning graphics, so when you throw super-high resolutions and complex lighting effects, even the most powerful gaming GPU in the world (which is what we have in our 8K test system) is going to struggle. Before I get to the raw numbers, it's worth mentioning what's new in the game, especially path tracing. Like an increasing number of games, DOOM: The Dark Ages launched with ray tracing effects which can't be turned off, so if your GPU doesn't support the advanced lighting effects (or struggles with how demanding they are), then you're out of luck. By enforcing ray tracing, it does mean the entire asthetic of the game has been designed to make use of it, and the new update adds path tracing, which takes the (already impressive) lighting effects of the game and makes them even more realistic. While normal ray tracing is great at showing realistic lighting effects when the light from a source hits a surface, path tracing goes further by continuing to render the light after it has bounced or reflected off the first surface, allowing multiple surfaces to be affected in real-time. It can result in some incredibly impressive and realistic shadows and reflections, especially in indoor areas of games where light sources from signs, lamps, and candles can bounce off floors walls and objects whilst also being reflected in pools of water. As you might expect, this complex recreation of how natural light behaves can be extremely taxing on your hardware, which is why the addition of Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction to DOOM: The Dark Ages is essential. A part of Nvidia's suite of DLSS tools that use AI to generate pixels alongside the pixels your GPU renders (and with Frame Generation, entire frames), which has in the past dramatically improved the performance of some games, Ray Reconstruction does a similar job but uses AI to generate additional rays (as in rays of light) alongside the rays that the GPU is rendering, taking the load off of the graphics card with an aim to improve performance whilst not impacting image quality too much. As these features have been designed by Nvidia, it means they are exclusive to Team Green's graphics cards (while AMD RDNA 4 GPUs can support path tracing, AMD has yet to release a tool like Ray Reconstruction that takes the load off the graphics card - and that could mean while the game looks great, it won't run well. Even with the power of the Nvidia RTX 5090, it's clear that DLSS and AI generation is required to allow the game to have both Path Tracing effects and a remotely playable frame rate. With graphical settings set to their highest, with DLSS set to 'Quality' (which prioritzes graphic fidelity over performance, meaning the image is upscaled by AI from a larger initial resolution), at 8K resoltion I was only getting 16fps (frames per second) - a far cry from the 60fps I aim for at a minimum. So, even with the help of DLSS, which has helped many modern games hit 60fps at 8K in the past, this level of lighting effects combined with the ultra-high resolution has proved too much. Before giving up in despair, there are a few more tricks to try. As part of the new update, support for Multi Frame Generation has also been added to DOOM: The Dark Ages. I've found Multi Frame Generation to make a drastic impact on frame rates in the titles, but the feature has proven to be controversial. It uses AI to generate and insert frames (essentially still images) between each frame generated by the GPU. With Multi Frame Generation this can mean an additional three frames generated per each frame rendered by the GPU, which can boost the frame rate (how many frames are shown per second) - though the more frames that are AI generated, the more danger there is that image artefacts and other issues appear. I've been impressed with how the recent Multi Frame Generation works, as in the games I've tested it in, the generated frames aren't as noticable than when the earlier Frame Generation (which generated a single frame) launched, though there can be a softness and slight blurriness to the overall look of certain games when used extensively. I won't get into the debate a lot of gamers seem to be having about 'real' and 'fake' frames, but I'm of the opinion that if these frames make games run better without compromising image quality (or replacing anyone's job), then there's no reason why I wouldn't use the feature. Turning on Multi Frame Generation to its highest setting, 4x (which refers to the one rendered frame and three generated frames), the frame rates did indeed jump to 54fps on average (I was playing in a mix of indoor and outdoor game locations with lots of enemies). However, despite the leap in frame rates, the game felt like it was playing in slow motion. It was quite an odd experience as it wasn't like when graphics cards struggle with games, leading to drops in frame rates. Here, gameplay was still smooth, but it just felt like the slow motion effect the game employs during some attacks was permenantly on. I changed the DLSS setting to 'Performance' which renders the game at a lower resolution, then uses AI to generate more pixels to upscale the resolution, and the frame rate jumped to 83fps on average. Crucially, the game once again felt fast, frantic and responsive. Turning off Path Tracing saw the frame rates leap to 143fps, which at 8K is incredibly impressive and also shows how much of a performance impact Path Tracing can have, even with Ray Reconstruction turned on. Turning Path Tracing back on and setting DLSS to Ultra Performance got me 145fps at 8K, and while there was a bit of a hit to image quality, it was an excellent overall experience. It's also worth noting that the 8K TV I use to test these games, the LG 55NANO966PA, maxes out 8K resolution at 60Hz, which means the benefits of frame rates above 60fps become less pronounced, though it can help reduce latency. Because of that, having DLSS set back to 'Performance' is the sweet spot here, as it boosts image quality without a noticable impact to how the game runs. With Path Tracing making such a big impact, is it worth enabling, even if you're not playing at 8K? It's an interesting question, especially with a game like DOOM: The Dark Ages, which already looks fantastic and prioritizes speed and reflexes in its fast-paced action. However, I found it was definitely worth it - the lighting effects really make a huge difference to how the game looks, and how immersive it is. In the moody setting of the medieval-inspired planet of Argent D'Nur, where the game takes place, having lamps and candles flicker and throw shadows and illuminate objects and surfaces, adds a huge amount of atmosphere. Projectiles thrown at you by enemies also benefit from the effect, lighting up the surroundings as they hurtle towards you. For people who have GPUs that will struggle to hit high frame rates alongside Path Tracing effects, then this trade off isn't worth it, as the game really relies on fast and smooth violence against the demonic hordes, but if you have one of the best graphics cards that's up to the task, then I really recommend turning it on and enjoy playing a game that whilst inexplicably tied to PC gaming's past, is hinting at what the future holds.

The Nvidia Blackwell guide to DOOM: The Dark Ages best settings

In procuring any new piece of tech, my first question has always been "Can it run DOOM?" It's a query that becomes all the more far-fetched as the game storms through its countless evolutions away from the initial mishmash of bloody pixels on a CRT TV. Thankfully, GPUs are keeping up with the current graphical hellscape as it begs more and more of our gaming PCs. With NVIDIA's 50-series graphics cards in particular, ramping up the fidelity for the latest game in the DOOM series, DOOM: The Dark Ages, is a cakewalk. A bloody, brutal, and ever so twisted cakewalk. At least it can be, you just need to find the best settings in order to achieve it. Whichever Blackwell GPU you're packing -- from NVIDIA's more affordable RTX 5060 all the way up to the rocksteady RTX 5090 -- there's a spread of graphics settings below that'll deliver devilishly smooth gameplay in just a few short clicks. Even if you're planning to connect up one of the best 4K gaming monitors and run DOOM in all its ray-traced glory, you'll be able to get stuck into some Dark Age demon-slaying thanks to the breadth of technological advancements in NVIDIA's latest GPUs. These include not only Reflex tech (to reduce system latency) and ray-tracing (to make everything look stunning), but also DLSS 4 which opens up access to the Blackwell exclusive Multi Frame Generation technology. With DOOM: The Dark Ages supporting these features, these 50-series GPUs can make the most of a full set of shaders with direct access to the chip's Tensor Cores and can AI generate up to three additional frames per traditional frame, offering a far smoother experience all-over. With more advanced tech there's going to be a lot more to consider settings-wise when starting up a new game. I've made sure to break down the best settings for DOOM: The Dark Ages for every GPU in the NVIDIA 50-series, pointing out the strengths of each, and where you can tweak each one to make the most of said technology. Lets get stuck in, Doomslayer. Coming in at the top end, NVIDIA's RTX 5090 shouldn't need much tweaking to play DOOM: The Dark Ages, even when faced with 4K resolution and ray-tracing. In fact, crank it up to Ultra settings at 4K and it's unlikely you'll need to make a single change, bar any aesthetic preferences you might have. As the flagship of the 50-series, the RTX 5090 is more than fit for intense demonslaying sessions in 4K Ultra Nightmare settings. We're looking at 78% more memory bandwidth than the RTX 4090, and a boatload of goodies that translate to a 30% improvement in 4K gaming frame rates gen-on-gen. Thanks to the 4th Gen RT Cores the RTX 5090 is hauling, you're in for a cracking time even with ray-traced Reflections and Shadows turned on. So, absolutely do that. Pair that with DLSS 4 (Performance) and Multi Frame Generation (4x), as well as DLAA, and you'll be laughing through the high-res carnage at 200+ frames per second. DOOM: The Dark Ages' newly added path tracing feature, sampling multiple potential light sources for each pixel, certainly adds some extra work onto your GPU, but you likely won't have anything to worry about with a GeForce RTX 5090 system. Add on DLSS Ray Reconstruction and keep the settings as is and you shouldn't struggle to get 100+ frames. This 360 Watt GPU blew onto the market with 5% more cores than the RTX 4080 Super, and a 15% performance bump to match. Since you're getting GDDR7 instead of GDDR6X, the RTX 5080 touts up to 7 Gbps over its predecessor Ada cards. Of course, with greater memory bandwidth comes more responsibility. I'm joking. You really don't need to be gentle with this thing, though I still recommend turning Multi Frame Gen (x4) on to really push it past that 15% performance increase. Again, it'll happily chug along with Shadows and Reflections turned on in Ultra Nightmare settings. Even at 4K, you can expect around 200 fps with DLSS 4 (Performance) and DLAA backing it up. Like the 5090, the GeForce RTX 5080 should be more than capable of hitting playable frame rates if you do decide you want some path traced goodness. We'd recommend turning the preset down to Ultra if you do want to comfortably hit 100+fps, and flip on DLSS Ray Reconstruction for maximum image quality. With the 5070 Ti offering powerful gaming prowess at a more accessible price than the top-end GPUs in the 50-series, it's possible to deliver some divine retribution without spending all the gold in the empire. You will, before heading off to rip and/or tear, need to do a couple of minor graphical tweaks to give things a little boost, in particular if you're punishing hell freaks in 4K. Touting a cut down version of the same chip used in the RTX 5080, the 5070 Ti isn't far behind its big sister in terms of performance. This 300W GPU comes in at 25 - 30% quicker than the old RTX 4070 Ti Super and hits a nice middle ground when it comes to price too, especially with it being available at and even below MSRP. And while this GPU is a beast when it comes to overclocking, your average user might want to make a few changes to the graphics settings to get the most out of this middling monster. If you're aiming for 4K, you'll want to hold back a little with Ultra settings as opposed to Ultra Nightmare. Switch on DLSS 4 (Performance), Multi Frame Generation (4x), and DLAA to make the most of this powerful mid-range GPU with RT Shadows and Reflections on. At 1440p you can certainly get away with whacking the settings preset up to Ultra Nightmare mode. If you're planning on turning on path tracing with DOOM: TDA's latest update, you may want to stick to 1440p for the best performance. With Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction, Ultra Settings should put you comfortably in the 100+ fps range. The RTX 5070 is one of those cards that can still pack a punch with 12GB of VRAM. With RTX capability to match the RTX 3090 it's no slouch when it comes to both out-of-game rendering and in-game ray tracing. Tune it perfectly within the DOOM: The Dark Ages graphics setting page, and you can really make this baby sing. I recommend first switching to the high preset, which should see you through at high resolution, as long as you have DLSS 4 (Performance), Multi Frame Generation (4x), and DLAA backing you up. That should nab you 100+ fps with Shadows and Reflections turned on. If it's a 1440p gaming monitor you're working with, you can get away with switching up to Ultra settings with everything else left as-is. A 1080p will happily spit out Ultra Nightmare settings, though I suggest switching the Multi Frame Generation down a tad to 2x, rather than 4x (unless you have an ultra high refresh rate monitor). You should still see around 150+ fps with ray-traced Shadows and Reflections on at lower resolutions. Given how demanding full path tracing can be, we'd recommend sticking to 1080p resolution if you're planning on turning this setting on. Ultra preset and MFG should give you a more than playable experience, with every demon kill illuminated in glorious fidelity. When it comes to the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti, it becomes a little more of a dance to get the graphics settings right. That doesn't mean you can't get high fidelity performance at 1440p or even 4K. It's even possible to play with ray-tracing on at this end of the 50-series with a little extra tweaking, and still match 100+ fps. Power up the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti with a 4K gaming monitor, and you'll want to keep to a maximum of Medium settings in DOOM: The Dark Ages. NVIDIA recommends sticking with DLSS 4 (Performance), DLAA, and Multi Frame Generation (4x) if you want everything to keep running smoothly at around 100+ fps. I don't recommend pushing past Medium settings into Ultra unless you switch down to 1440p. You shouldn't have trouble switching Ray Tracing on with the 16GB either thanks to Ray Reconstruction tech, even if you knock down to 1080p and switch up to Ultra Nightmare settings. For Path Tracing, similar to the 5070 our recommendation is keeping it to 1080p Ultra, with MFG at 4x. This is one we wouldn't recommend pushing your luck at 4K. Instead, at 1440p the 8GB RTX 5060Ti will appreciate dropping the settings preset down to High, but with the help of DLSS 4 (Performance), Multi Frame Generation (4x), and DLAA you're still looking at an admirable 150+ fps. That's with all the ray-traced glory switched on as well (you probably don't want to push up to full path tracing). Drop down to 1080p and you'll be able to switch right up to Ultra Nightmare mode settings, though I recommend keeping Multi Frame Generation at 2x rather than 4x. Even at the far end of the 50-series, the RTX 5060 shouldn't have trouble with the same settings as the 8GB RTX 5060Ti. Though you'll likely get fewer frames per second to play with, you should still be able to enjoy DOOM: The Dark Ages with ray-tracing switched on with the same settings as above in both 1440p and 1080p. In case you were concerned that you'd end up slaying a mass of pixels with the lower-end cards in NVIDIA's RTX 50-series, I hope you feel reassured that DOOM: The Dark Ages scales across the Blackwell GPU range. With minimal compromise in terms of performance, just a few tweaks can land you in the 100+ fps range even at the lower end. That's thanks in no small part to DLSS 4's many smashing features -- such as Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction -- that utilise all those AI cores in order to enhance the experience.

The best settings to use with your NVIDIA RTX 50 series for DOOM: The Dark Ages

The long-awaited DOOM: The Dark Ages is now available to play on consoles and PC, providing a visually stunning and action-packed demon-slaying experience. While the console version puts you right into the fight, the PC has the benefit of the latest and greatest visual and performance enhancing features like DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation, allowing players to extract every ounce of graphical fidelity out of the game. These technologies make DOOM: The Dark Ages the perfect title to really make the most of your NVIDIA RTX 50-series system, whether you're diving into the action on a budget, or looking to go all out with the RTX 5090. No matter your setup, this guide contains all the information you'll need to enjoy the latest entry into this beloved franchise at its best, including the recently released update that adds an option for full path-tracing. The RTX 50 series is the latest line of graphics cards from NVIDIA, and no matter your budget or performance requirements, there's one for you. From the more affordable but still powerful RTX 5060; to the jack-of-all-trades the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti; and the no-compromise cards that will give you the absolute best performance if you've got the cash to splash, the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. Each of these cards enable a multitude of modern tools that can elevate your gaming experience, providing a higher framerate and better graphical fidelity, so you can have DOOM looking its absolute best. NVIDIA's RTX 50-series graphics cards are based on its latest Blackwell architecture, which supports higher clock speeds and faster VRAM, improving the overall performance and efficiency compared to previous generations in the exact same scenarios. While there's plenty to say about the architecture alone, the real benefit of this generation for gaming is the full RTX tech suite, putting 50-series gamers ahead of the curve. Perhaps the most widely recognised tech in this suite is DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, which uses AI to upscale and generate up to three additional frames for each traditionally rendered frame, massively boosting performance in supported titles. Whilst Frame Generation is available on 40-series cards, Multi Frame Generation is exclusive to the 50-series and will give you even more bang for your buck. Because this is done through software baked into the graphics card, it is a much more efficient way to boost frames per second without cooking your computer. Hell is hot, your PC shouldn't be. Also in this suite is Ray Reconstruction, an AI technology which produces higher quality ray-traced scenes, improving on a number of aspects of traditional ray-tracing. Notably, Ray Reconstruction is much better at processing light and shadows for moving objects, producing a less noisy image, and adding to the realism. This is all thanks to its neural network that can recognise in-game materials and better assess how light should interact with it, creating much higher quality pixels in the process. This is particularly handy in DOOM: The Dark Ages, where ray-tracing is required. It's worth noting that both of these features also support NVIDIA's new DLSS transformer model, which can be enabled in the NVIDIA app. This new model provides better image quality, more stable images in motion (great for fast-paced titles like this), and less ghosting. That means that for just slightly increased VRAM usage, you can get an upgraded version of these impressive technologies, further improving the visual experience. One of the most overlooked areas in modern gaming is system latency, that is the time it takes for your mouse click to register on-screen. In games like DOOM: The Dark Ages, where movement is quick and aiming is snappy, reducing system latency will be key in fighting off the hordes of hellspawn coming your way. NVIDIA Reflex can cut system latency by more than half in supported titles, providing a smoother and more responsive experience at no real cost. Now that we know what these technologies can do, let's take a look at how best to use them depending on your setup. This section takes a look at NVIDIA's more affordable side of the 50-series lineup. While these cards may not be able to max out everything at 4K, they still pack quite the punch, especially with support from the RTX tech suite. Whilst the RTX 5060 is really aimed at 1080p gamers, you can still get a smooth framerate and stunning visuals at 1440p with the help of Multi Frame Generation. Likewise, the RTX 5060 Ti can range from 1080p to 4K depending on which model you pick, as the 16GB VRAM card will give you that extra bit of leeway needed to make the most of the higher resolutions. While the top end of the 50-series cards will offer the best experience possible, NVIDIA's mid-range options achieve fantastic performance and affordability. The RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti are not too far apart by spec, though the RTX 5070 Ti's higher VRAM and memory bandwidth give it a notable edge at higher resolutions. If you're looking to enable some graphical settings like path-tracing, then we'd suggest sticking with 1440p and 1080p, as 4K may stretch your system's resources a bit thin. The resources saved by lowering the resolution will allow you to experience the fully path-traced world of DOOM and turn other settings up a notch. If you're willing to invest in a top of the line graphics card then the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are the cards for you. These monsters can both get you crisp 4K visuals and more frames per second than you'll know what to do with. Either one will provide you with an unmatched DOOM gaming experience, with the RTX 5090 offering the absolute best of the best. Both of these cards won't struggle running path-tracing, although with the 5080 you may want to turn the quality settings down to Ultra. For 200+ FPS at 4K resolution Now your settings are perfectly optimised, it's time to step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer and become a legend. Prices for 50-series cards across the stack have come down to normal levels, dropping below MSRP in some cases. So if you've been pondering your next upgrade, now is a great time to make the jump.