It’s finally here, folks – a game that can only be run with ray tracing. Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition is set to launch next week, and it will provide a massive visual upgrade that overhauls the lighting system to make “every light source fully ray traced”. The update also introduces support for DLSS 2.0 to help offset the performance requirements.
Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition is set to launch on May 6, and while it will be provided for free to anyone who owns the original game on Steam, Epic, GOG, or the Microsoft Store, it’s an entirely separate product, not an update. Saves will carry over to the Enhanced Edition, as long as they’re on the same platform you originally played the game on.
The system requirements are fairly modest, at least as far as ray tracing goes. You’ll be able to run the Enhanced Edition with its ray tracing fanciness on an RTX 2070 or RX 6800 XT at 1080p and 60fps, according to the devs – and that’s without DLSS. According to an early report from Digital Foundry, the Enhanced Edition with its full RT options actually runs a bit smoother than the original did with its more limited ray tracing features enabled.
Metro Exodus was already a fantastic-looking game, and seeing it with a full ray tracing implementation should be even more impressive. You can get more details in the official FAQ.
Check out our guide to the best graphics cards if you’re looking to make an RT-compatible upgrade. Can you run it? Check your PC against the Metro Exodos system requirements 2021 on PCGameBenchmark.