Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been one of the biggest game launches of the year, unlocking early for those who bought the Premium Edition. The game’s first update arrived with hotfixes just ahead of its full release. On top of the long list of bug fixes and improvements is the addition of a new feature: Full Ray Tracing (Path Tracing).

However, as seen in the patch notes, this feature is supported on “NVIDIA video cards” only, and a minimum of 12GB VRAM is required to utilize it. That locks out many GPU owners, including many of those on Team Green, even if you have the RTX 3080 (10GB) that has otherwise been a suitable choice for titles with ray tracing.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gets full ray tracing for Nvidia GPU owners

Just by looking at the system requirements, you’ll know that Great Circle is a demanding game. In fact, GPU Hardware Ray Tracing is a minimum requirement, and that essentially locks out anyone using an old Nvidia GTX GPU. With that in mind, it’s evident that real-time lighting is an integral part of the game’s graphics, with path tracing being an extension of that for Nvidia users. For reference, the developers recommend at least an RTX 4070 (12GB) for 60 FPS full ray tracing, even at 1080p with DLSS quality mode.

If you plan to play on a desktop PC, we recommend picking up one of the best GPUs for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Early tests on the Steam Deck (a handheld fitted with AMD hardware) show that it runs terribly; you’re better off using streaming platforms such as GeForce Now.

AMD GPU owners miss out, though at least FSR is coming

With the revelation that path tracing is Nvidia only for the time being, this means that even owners of AMD’s current flagship graphics card won’t be able to use it. We’ve reviewed the RX 7900 XTX and applauded it for its “leading 4K performance” and price-to-performance ratio. It doesn’t quite measure up to the likes of the 4090, especially in ray tracing, but it holds its own in many AAA titles.

As demonstrated by a post on X from @puffin_time, who is using the 7900 XTX paired with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, there are no options for full ray tracing. If you are instead using an Nvidia GPU with at least 12GB of VRAM, you should find the following options under Advanced Video Settings:

• Path Tracing (Full Ray Tracing)
• RU Sun Shadows
• RT Reflections
• RT Indirect Illumination

On the bright side, the patch notes reveal that the devs are “also working to support AMD FSR in a future game update” though there is no mention of whether this will include support for FSR 3.1 and frame generation. Even still, this isn’t directly related to ray tracing, but it will undoubtedly help boost performance.

• 
• 
• 
• 

ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX OC

4.5 /5

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Specifications

• GPU: Navi 31
• Stream Processors: 6,144
• VRAM: 24GB GDDR6
• Memory bus width: 384-bit
• Bandwidth: 960 GB/s
• Base clock speed: 1,929 MHz

• Shop on Amazon
• Shop on

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.