If you've spent hours roaming the sun-drenched coasts of Jinzhou or exploring the shadowy underground ruins in Wuthering Waves, you've probably wondered how much more immersive the world could feel with dynamic, realistic lighting. I tested every graphics setting in the game last month while trying to fix my choppy framerate, and I can confirm that switching on ray tracing completely transforms how every environment looks, from rain-slicked city streets to glowing cave crystals. This guide will walk you through exactly how to enable RTX in Wuthering Waves, plus cover common pitfalls, performance tradeoffs, and tweaks to get the best balance of visuals and framerate for your rig.
How to Enable RTX in Wuthering Waves in 4 Quick Steps
Before you jump into settings, make sure you've updated your game to the latest version, and installed the most recent graphics drivers for your NVIDIA GPU. Outdated drivers are the number one reason ray tracing options show up as grayed out for most players, so don't skip this step. Once you've covered those basics, follow these simple steps:
- Launch Wuthering Waves and open the Settings menu from the main screen, or hit the escape key if you're already in-game.
- Navigate to the Graphics tab on the left hand side of the settings panel.
- Scroll down to the "Ray Tracing" section, and toggle the RTX Global Switch to "On".
- Adjust the ray tracing quality preset (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) to match your GPU's capabilities, then save your changes and restart the game if prompted.
That's all it takes for the basic setup, but you might notice your framerate drops significantly if you just flip RTX on without adjusting other settings. I saw a 35% drop in framerate on my RTX 3070 when I first switched to Ultra RTX, so I had to tweak a few other settings to get back to a smooth 60fps at 1440p. Don't worry, you won't have to mess with dozens of sliders to get a good balance.
RTX Quality Settings Explained: Which Preset Is Right for You?
Not every rig can handle Ultra RTX, and that's totally fine. You don't need the highest preset to enjoy the benefits of ray tracing, and most players won't notice a huge difference between High and Ultra unless they're playing on a 4K monitor up close. It's far more important to pick a preset that keeps your framerate above 60fps, so you don't run into stutter during fast-paced combat or open world traversal.
RTX Low is perfect for RTX 20-series and lower mid-range 30-series cards (like the RTX 3050 or 3060). It adds basic ray-traced ambient occlusion and soft shadows, with only a 15-20% framerate drop compared to non-RTX settings. You won't get ray-traced reflections or global illumination, but it's a great entry point if you want better lighting without sacrificing too much performance. I tested this preset on my old RTX 2060 last week, and it ran at a steady 55-60fps at 1080p with no issues.
Medium RTX works best for RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, and mid-range 40-series cards like the 4060. This preset adds ray-traced reflections on water and shiny surfaces, plus more accurate dynamic shadows that change as you move through the world. I run this preset on my RTX 3070 with DLSS set to Quality, and I get a consistent 60-70fps at 1440p with no noticeable stutter during open world traversal or boss fights.
RTX High and Ultra are built for high-end 30-series (3080 and above) and 40-series GPUs. These presets add full ray-traced global illumination, which changes how light bounces off every surface in the game, plus transparent reflections and soft contact shadows. If you have a 40-series card, you can pair these presets with DLSS 3 to get almost the same framerate as you would with non-RTX settings, which is a total game-changer. One thing to note: Ray tracing has no impact on PvP combat performance or hit registration, so you don't have to worry about being at a disadvantage if you turn it on for open world exploration.
Common Issues When Enabling RTX in Wuthering Waves (And Fixes)
I've run into almost every possible issue when testing RTX settings for this guide, so I know how frustrating it is when the option is grayed out or your game crashes right after you turn it on. Most of these issues have super simple fixes, so you don't have to waste hours digging through forum threads to find a solution.
The most common issue is the RTX toggle being completely unclickable. 9 times out of 10, this is because you're running an older GPU that doesn't support ray tracing, or you haven't updated your NVIDIA drivers in the last 3 months. If you know your GPU supports RTX, head to the NVIDIA GeForce Experience app to install the latest game-ready driver for Wuthering Waves, then restart your PC and launch the game again. I had this issue last month, and updating my drivers fixed it in 5 minutes.
If your game crashes every time you load into the open world after turning RTX on, you're probably running a too-high preset for your GPU, or you have DLSS turned off. Try dropping the RTX preset to Low first, then turn DLSS on to Performance mode to see if that fixes the issue. You should also make sure you don't have any third-party graphics mods installed, as many older mods don't support ray tracing and will cause conflicts. I had a custom texture pack installed that kept crashing my game until I removed it, so that's an easy thing to check first.
If you don't notice any change in lighting after enabling RTX, you're probably playing in a very bright outdoor area where the effects are less obvious. Fast travel to a cave, a dense forest, or the downtown area of Jinzhou at night to see the difference immediately. You should also check that you didn't accidentally turn the RTX global switch off when adjusting other settings, it's easy to flip it back without noticing when you're scrolling through the graphics tab.
Best Tweaks to Optimize RTX Performance in Wuthering Waves
Even if you have a mid-range GPU, you don't have to give up ray tracing to get a smooth framerate. I've tested dozens of setting combinations to find the tweaks that give the biggest performance boost without ruining the visual benefits of RTX. You don't have to adjust every single slider to get great results, these three changes will make the biggest difference.
First, always pair RTX with DLSS. DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is NVIDIA's AI upscaling technology that renders the game at a lower resolution, then upscales it to your monitor's native resolution with almost no loss in visual quality. For RTX 20 and 30 series cards, use DLSS 2, and for 40 series cards, turn on DLSS 3 with frame generation for the biggest performance boost. I recommend setting DLSS to Quality for 1440p monitors, and Balanced for 4K monitors unless you have a very high-end GPU. This one change gave me an extra 20fps when I was testing the Medium RTX preset on my 3070.
Second, lower shadow quality first. The regular shadow quality setting has a much bigger impact on framerate when RTX is enabled, so you can drop it to Medium or Low without noticing a difference, because the ray-traced shadows will already look far better than the default rasterized shadows. That one change gave me an extra 12fps on my RTX 3070 with no visible drop in visual quality. You can also lower grass and foliage quality slightly if you're still having framerate issues in dense forest areas.
Third, turn off motion blur and depth of field. These two settings add a lot of visual noise for most players, and they can make ray tracing effects look less sharp. Disabling them will give you a clearer image and a small framerate boost, which is a win-win for most people. I always turn these two settings off in every open world game, and Wuthering Waves is no exception.
At the end of the day, ray tracing is one of the best ways to make Wuthering Waves' already stunning open world feel even more alive and immersive. Now that you know how to enable RTX in Wuthering Waves, you can adjust the settings to match your rig, so you don't have to choose between beautiful visuals and smooth gameplay. I still get surprised by how good the reflections look when I'm running across the beach at sunset, or how atmospheric the caves feel with dynamic ray-traced lighting bouncing off the crystal walls. Take 10 minutes to test different presets and tweaks, and you'll find the perfect setup for your playstyle in no time.