If you’ve spent hours wandering the sunlit coasts of Jinzhou or exploring dark, forgotten ruins in Wuthering Waves, you’ve probably noticed the game already looks great out of the box. But if you want to take that immersion up a notch, you’re probably wondering how to enable ray tracing in Wuthering Waves to get those realistic reflections, soft shadows, and dynamic light bounces that make every scene feel alive. I’ve tested this setting across three different PC builds over the past few months, so I’ll walk you through exactly what you need, what to watch for, and how to fix common issues that pop up when you turn this feature on.
Pre-Requisites to Run Ray Tracing in Wuthering Waves
Before you even open your game settings, you need to make sure your hardware and game installation are ready to support ray tracing. This feature is pretty GPU-intensive, so older cards won’t be able to run it at all, even if you see the toggle in your menu. I’ve seen a lot of players waste time troubleshooting a greyed-out toggle just because they didn’t check their hardware compatibility first.
Here’s the full list of minimum requirements you need to meet to run ray tracing smoothly:
- NVIDIA GPU: GeForce RTX 2060 6GB or higher for 1080p low/medium ray tracing settings
- AMD GPU: Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB or higher for stable 1080p performance with ray tracing enabled
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 or higher to avoid stuttering when loading open world areas with heavy lighting effects
- Storage: SSD installation only, as ray tracing assets load faster and won’t cause pop-in during fast travel
Note that ray tracing is only supported on the PC version of Wuthering Waves right now. Mobile and console versions don’t have the feature available, even on high-end devices. If you’re playing on a gaming laptop, make sure you’re running the game on your dedicated GPU instead of the integrated CPU graphics, as integrated chips can’t handle ray tracing at all.
Step-by-Step Process to Enable Ray Tracing in Wuthering Waves
Once you’ve confirmed your hardware meets the requirements, enabling ray tracing only takes a few clicks. You can adjust this setting either from the main menu or mid-game, but I prefer making changes while I’m standing in an open world area so I can see the visual difference in real time. You don’t have to restart the game for the changes to take effect, which is a nice quality of life touch the devs added.
First, launch the game and log in to your account. Open the settings menu by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. Next, navigate to the Graphics tab on the left-hand side of the settings menu. Scroll down until you find the Advanced Graphics section, where you’ll see the Ray Tracing toggle right below the Shadow Quality option. Click the toggle to turn it on, then use the drop-down menu next to it to select your preferred quality level from Low, Medium, High, or Ultra.
I always recommend starting with Medium quality first if you’re not sure what your PC can handle. I run an RTX 3070, and I get a steady 70 FPS at 1440p with Medium ray tracing and DLSS set to Quality, which is the perfect balance for me between visual quality and performance. If you’re getting over 60 FPS consistently, you can bump the quality up, but if you notice stuttering, drop it down a level or turn on DLSS/FSR upscaling to boost performance without losing much visual quality.
Common Ray Tracing Issues and How to Fix Them
Even if your hardware meets the requirements, you might run into small issues when you first turn ray tracing on. Most of these are super easy to fix, and you don’t need any technical expertise to resolve them. I’ve run into every single one of these issues during my testing, so I know exactly what works to get things running smoothly.
The most common issue is a greyed-out ray tracing toggle. This usually happens for one of three reasons: your GPU isn’t compatible, your GPU drivers are out of date, or your game isn’t updated to the latest version. First, double-check that your GPU is on the supported list I shared earlier. If it is, download the latest game-ready drivers from NVIDIA or AMD’s official website, then verify your game files through the Wuthering Waves launcher to make sure you have all the latest assets installed.
If your game stutters or crashes when ray tracing is enabled, you probably have the quality set too high for your hardware, or you’re running the game off an HDD. Lower the ray tracing quality level first, and make sure you have DLSS or FSR turned on to reduce the load on your GPU. Close all background apps like browsers or streaming software when playing with ray tracing on, as those take up valuable VRAM that the game needs to run smoothly. If you haven’t moved the game to an SSD yet, that will almost completely eliminate stuttering and asset pop-in.
If you notice grainy or weird-looking reflections on higher quality settings, that’s usually a problem with denoising. Go to the Advanced Graphics menu and make sure ray tracing denoising is turned on. This feature smooths out grainy lighting effects without a big hit to performance, and it’s usually enabled by default, but some mods or old driver installations can turn it off without you noticing.
Is Ray Tracing Worth Turning On in Wuthering Waves?
Ray tracing makes a huge visual difference, but it does come with a performance cost, so it’s normal to wonder if it’s worth enabling for your playstyle. The answer really depends on what you prioritize when you play, and how well your PC can run the feature at a stable FPS.
The biggest benefit is how much more immersive the open world feels. Sunset scenes look absolutely stunning with ray tracing enabled, as light bounces off water surfaces and building facades exactly like it does in real life. Dark dungeons also feel way more tense and atmospheric, because your character’s torch will cast soft, dynamic shadows that move with you instead of the harsh static shadows you get with ray tracing off. I always leave it on when I’m playing story quests or just wandering the map exploring hidden areas.
That said, you will take a 20-40% performance hit depending on your GPU and quality level, so it’s not ideal for every scenario. If you’re grinding combat challenges or playing PvP, you might want to turn it off to get higher FPS and faster response times. Battery life on gaming laptops will also drop drastically when ray tracing is enabled, so only use it if you’re plugged in to a power source.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to enable ray tracing in Wuthering Waves only takes a few clicks, but it can completely transform how you experience the game’s stunning open world. Take the time to test different quality levels and upscaling settings to find the balance that works best for your hardware, and don’t be afraid to toggle it off for more intensive combat encounters if you notice performance drops. If you run into any issues we didn’t cover here, drop a comment below and I’ll help you troubleshoot.