Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Makes It Clear That One PC Trend Is Sticking Around, For Better Or Worse
It has been revealed that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater on PC will require a graphics card capable of ray tracing, with Nvidia’s RTX 3080 being Konami’s recommendation. This is surprising for several reasons. The main one is that some long-time Metal Gear fans may already own a good GPU, but still may want to opt out of ray tracing. Konami also only spotlight the Nvidia brand, and it is up to loyalists of AMD and Intel to gamble if their ray tracing cards will also be compatible.
This trend isn’t completely new, as titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also needed an Nvidia RTX to initially run in 2024. Though, in that case, MachineGames did eventually include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and Intel Arc A580 as alternatives after the two respective companies updated their drivers. Since these GPU patches are already live, Ubisoft is promoting all three ray tracing options for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and not solely backing RTX.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Requires RTX Cards
It is Unclear If Ray Tracing Will Work On Other Graphics Cards
Currently, MGSD:SE’s Steam page only has Nvidia’s RTX video cards as the minimum and recommended GPU. It is a little unclear why AMD and Intel aren’t also in any of the specs list yet; perhaps Konami simply hasn’t tested out those cards fully and will add them on Steam in the future. After all, the official release date isn’t until August 28, 2025. Or, more troubling would be if only the RTX brand ran the game at all.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Might Remove One Memorable Sequence, But There's A Silver Lining
Guy Savage probably won’t appear in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. But, that dream can be reworked for Konami’s other franchises.
The latter would be rather questionable, with there being speculation that Nvidia has some improved technology when paired with Unreal Engine 5, which MGSD:SE is built on. However, Epic Games has promoted all three major ray tracing competitors and claimed that all are powerful enough to handle its latest game engine. This makes it seem that the choice to only mention RTX is purely on Konami, either due to how the game is programmed or some kind of marketing deal.
Ray-Tracing Is Quickly Becoming Less Optional
Most People Own A Compatible Card
Ray tracing hardware being mandatory was always inevitable. The current technology has been on the market since the early 1980s, though it was mostly for industry professionals making films and was impractical for PC games - most of those machines were massive. More consumer-focused graphics cards began to be sold in the 2010s, with RTX becoming rather standard in 2019.
With more people on average owning a ray tracing card, it does make sense that various developers would want to make it mandatory. A company like Square Enix has become famous for its state-of-the-art graphics. Having games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 look their best is mostly due to pushing ray tracing. But, personally, I don’t mind if my RPGs aren't as crisp and play the Final Fantasy series with minimum specs on PC.
Still, there is a small subset of PC players that don’t always want ray tracing forced on them. There are some who either prefer or simply can’t see much of a difference between real-time ray tracing and the older rasterized graphics. For them, forcing ray tracing to be on is just a waste of resources that could impact performance. After all, the joy of playing Metal Gear Solid games tends to come from the feel of responsive gameplay, not just beautiful graphics.
Required Ray-Tracing Has Big Benefits & Major Downsides
It is Great For Cinematic Games & Terrible For Online
Ray tracing’s benefit is how much better a game can look. MachineGames made this very important when building Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This is achieved by calculating shadows and lighting in real time. By analyzing each individual ray, a GPU can find the entire global illumination and create more realistic shadows. This also helps better simulate all kinds of visual effects from more accurate reflections, improved depth of field, and ambient light. This is how the current generation of games has such high fidelity, even when played on console.
But that incredible beauty and awe can come with performance issues. The use of ray tracing can easily lower frame rates down to 90 or 60. Additionally, if the developer isn’t careful with their programming, ray tracing could also turn into a CPU or RAM hog, though this is much rarer among seasoned studios. Ray tracing could make online multiplayer games unplayable when matches are won by a fraction of a second reaction. Adding forced ray tracing to a free-to-play game like Fortnite or Marvel Rivals would kill the playerbase.
The original PlayStation 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater included a multiplayer mode, dubbed Metal Gear Online. This component has not yet been revealed for the remake and is likely not included in MGSD:SE.
Ray tracing is mostly still for a grandiose single-player experience. It does make sense in a heavily cinematic game like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. As soon as there is an online component to a game, though, heavily relying on graphics is a mistake. Games are always at their best when they are reliable and not filled with performance issues or bugs.
Source: Steam
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
- Released
- August 28, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood, Sexual Themes, Violence
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a remake of the classic PlayStation 2 title Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In the game, players assume the role of FOX operative Naked Snake, who is sent to diffuse growing tensions between the United States and Russia during the Cold War era. When Snake's former mentor, the Boss, is revealed to have launched a nuclear device in Russia, Snake is sent on behalf of the U.S. Government to deal with her covertly - and to discover the truth of the incident for himself.
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
- Metal Gear Solid
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Developer
- Virtuos, Konami, Konami Digital Entertainment
