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007 First Light Path Tracing Benchmarks & Comparisons

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Earlier today, IO Interactive released the Path Tracing Patch for 007 First Light. As such, I’ve decided to benchmark it and compare its visuals against its rasterized version. Can Path Tracing improve the graphics of one of the best rasterized games of 2026? Let’s find out.

To test Path Tracing, I used an I used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, as well as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 and an RTX 5090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit and the GeForce 616.92 driver.

007 First Light does not have a built-in benchmark tool. So, for our benchmarks, I used this scene. This appears to be one of the most demanding areas in the game. Other areas should run better than this one. So, please keep that in mind when comparing our results with those from other outlets.

Benchmark Scene

IO Interactive claimed that an NVIDIA RTX 5080 is enough for native 1440p at 60 FPS with Path Tracing set to Medium. However, that’s not what we’re seeing. In our benchmark scene, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 runs at around 30 FPS with those settings. That’s nowhere near what the developers claimed. I don’t know why IO Interactive has so blatantly lied about it. I mean, everyone can test the game and see that the real frame rate is far below what IO Interactive suggested.

At 1440p, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 can deliver an acceptable gaming experience with DLSS Quality and Path Tracing set to High. With these settings, we get an average of 43 FPS. This is a healthy frame rate for using DLSS Frame Generation. By “healthy,” I mean that you should not see major input lag or many visual artifacts when you enable DLSS Frame Generation. I don’t mean that 40 FPS is great for gaming. I only mean that it is a good base frame rate for Frame Generation. By dropping to DLSS Performance Mode, you can get a performance boost. However, I don’t recommend it as you’ll get a noticeably blurrier image.

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At 4K/Path Tracing High, the NVIDIA RTX 5080 runs at 14/15 FPS at native resolution. With DLSS Performance, we get to 33/38 FPS. Surprisingly enough, since this is a slow-paced game, it was playable when I enabled DLSS Multi-Frame Gen on the RTX 5080. It’s not ideal. However, if you own a 4K monitor, it will be best to play at 4K/Path Tracing High/DLSS Performance rather than at 1440p/Path Tracing High/DLSS Performance. I’ve tried both of them, and the former is the better choice. At least in this specific title.

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On the other hand, the NVIDIA RTX 5090 is able to provide a good gaming experience at both 1440p/DLSS Quality and 4K/DLSS Performance. At 1440p/DLSS Quality, we get an average of 52 FPS, and at 4K/DLSS Performance, we get an average of 61 FPS. Both of them are ideal for using Frame Gen so that you can get a smooth experience.

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Now, it’s time for some visual comparisons. On the left, you will find the screenshots with Path Tracing On. On the right, you will find those with Path Tracing Off.

Path Tracing On-1Path Tracing Off-1 Path Tracing On-2Path Tracing Off-2 Path Tracing On-3Path Tracing Off-3 Path Tracing On-4Path Tracing Off-4 Path Tracing On-5Path Tracing Off-5 Path Tracing On-6Path Tracing Off-6 Path Tracing On-7Path Tracing Off-7 Path Tracing On-8Path Tracing Off-8

What’s interesting here is the first level. As you will see in the first comparison, there is no AO or shadows on the grass with Path Tracing. I don’t know if this is a bug. What I do know is that the rasterized version can compete with the path-traced version in that level. This is the most polished level of the rasterized version.

Then, everything goes to hell for the rasterized version. In every other comparison, the rasterized version feels like an old-gen version. I mean, look at the last comparison. The visual difference is huge.

All in all, the Path Tracing effects in 007 First Light are quite demanding. The good news for those with an NVIDIA RTX 5080 is that they can enjoy the game, even at 4K, provided they use the right settings. And yes, you will need both DLSS Super Resolution and Multi-Frame Gen. If you don’t like them, you should not bother at all enabling Path Tracing.

In my opinion, the path-traced version looks good enough to justify these huge GPU requirements. In many cases, it looks like a next-gen version of 007 First Light. You also don’t need a magnifying glass to see the visual improvements in the screenshots. They are easy to spot.

Before closing, if you believe that you will be able to run Path Tracing at Native 4K or without Frame Gen in the next 4-5 years, you are delusional. You clearly don’t know how demanding Path Tracing is. If you are in that camp, do yourselves a favour and exit the room. You clearly don’t know anything about Path Tracing. So, don’t bother embarrassing yourselves.

The bottom line is that 007 First Light was one of the best-looking rasterized games of 2027. And with its Path Tracing patch, it has become one of the best-looking games on PC. Kudos to IO Interactive for delivering the goods!