EA’s upcoming first-person shooter, Battlefield 6, won’t support ray tracing at launch—or ever. Instead, the devs are doubling down on one core priority: performance across a wide range of systems.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, technical director Christian Buhl explained the reasoning: “We just made the decision relatively early on that we just weren’t going to do ray-tracing… it was mostly so that we could focus on making sure it was [optimized] for everyone else.”
This mindset extends beyond visual tech. According to Eurogamer, a “meaningful percentage” of players in the beta were running the game on systems that barely met—or fell short of—the minimum spec. The team at Ripple Effect actively built maps and tuned performance to accommodate setups running on six-year-old GPUs, ensuring a more inclusive shooter without cutting corners.
Upscaling solutions like DLSS and FSR are supported but not required, with Battlefield 6 designed to run well out of the box. It’s a rare move in modern AAA FPS design, where visual settings often become performance crutches rather than enhancements.
The game launches October 10, and if early performance metrics hold, Battlefield 6 may end up being one of the most technically approachable entries in the series to date.
Curious how it actually runs? Check out our first impressions of the Battlefield 6 open beta for early thoughts on performance and gameplay.
