Battlefield 6 to launch without 'ray tracing' support on PC: What it means

Battlefield 6 is set to release on October 10 without ray tracing support, as Ripple Effect says the team chose to prioritise performance and smoother play over advanced visuals

Electronic Arts’ upcoming Battlefield title—Battlefield 6—will launch without ray tracing support, according to a report from Comicbook. Christian Buhl, studio technical director at Ripple Effect (one of the development teams behind the game), confirmed in an interview that the PC version of Battlefield 6 will not feature ray tracing, and there are no immediate plans to add it later.

 

Buhl explained that the choice was made to prioritise stability and optimisation at default settings, ensuring smoother performance for a broader range of players.

 

“No, we are not going to have ray-tracing when the game launches and we don’t have any plans in the near future for it either,” said Buhl. “That was because we wanted to focus on performance. We wanted to make sure that all of our effort was focused on making the game as [optimised] as possible for the default settings and the default users. So, we just made the decision relatively early on that we just weren’t going to do ray-tracing and again, it was mostly so that we could focus on making sure it was performance for everyone else.” 

What is ray tracing? 

Ray tracing is a graphics rendering technique designed to mimic the way light behaves in the real world, delivering realistic visuals with accurate lighting, shadows, and reflections. Unlike traditional rasterisation, which relies on pre-calculated tricks to simulate lighting, ray tracing tracks the path of individual light rays as they bounce off, refract through, or pass around objects in a scene. The result is more natural and cinematic visuals.

How does ray tracing affect gaming performance?

While ray tracing enhances visual fidelity, it is extremely resource-heavy, requiring high computational power from modern GPUs. Real-time ray tracing can significantly reduce frame rates, making gameplay less fluid on lower- or mid-tier hardware. To counter this, technologies like NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) are often used, which upscale frames to maintain smooth performance. However, these enhancements generally require higher-end GPUs.

Battlefield 6: Availability

Battlefield 6 will launch on October 10, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The title is already listed on Steam, with two editions available for pre-purchase:

• Battlefield 6 Standard Edition: Rs 3,999
• Battlefield 6 Phantom Edition: Rs 5,999

While the Standard Edition includes the full game and Tombstone pack, the Phantom Edition brings additional in-game content like:

• BF Pro Token: Battle Pass + 25 tier skips, exclusive unlocks
• Phantom Squad: Four soldier skins
• Shrouded Weapon Package
• Glimmer Melee Weapon Skin
• Chimera Vehicle Skin
• Death’s Head Weapon Sticker
• WeaponCharm and Dog Tag
• Phantom XP Boost Set

Battlefield 6: Details

The Steam page description of Battlefield 6 reads: 

 

“The ultimate all-out warfare experience. Fight in high-intensity infantry combat. Rip through the skies in aerial dogfights. Demolish your environment for a strategic advantage. Harness complete control over every action and movement using the Kinesthetic Combat System. In a war of tanks, fighter jets, and massive combat arsenals, the deadliest weapon is your squad. This is Battlefield 6.”

Battlefield 6: System requirements

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5-8400, AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB, Intel Arc A380
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 55 GB available space

Recommended: 

• OS: Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-10700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060Ti, AMD Radeon RX 6700-XT, Intel Arc B580
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 80 GB available space