EA showed a demo for its racing game, F1 25, running on the PS5 Pro with full path tracing enabled at GDC 2026.
At GDC 2026, an EA developer showed an F1 25 running on the PS5 Pro with full path-tracing enabled. The demo is largely academic for now, intended to prove that real-time path tracing is possible on mainstream hardware and not just high-end PC hardware.
In its “standard” configuration, the path-traced build runs at roughly 20 fps on the PS5 Pro. However, EA revealed a proprietary technology developed in collaboration with its SEED R&D division called ORCA, which boosts performance to a stable 30 fps. The demo renders internally at 1080p and uses PSSR to upscale to 4K. Internal performance data shows total frame time dropping from around 42.32 ms to 23.36 ms, with the biggest gains coming from optimizing indirect lighting.
EA’s presentation highlighted the benefit of replacing a complex web of rendering systems with a single unified solution. Instead of separate pipelines for shadows, reflections, and global illumination, path tracing handles everything through one algorithm. This shift brings major visual benefits, including accurate per-pixel soft shadows, physically correct global illumination, and natural light bouncing that “connects” the scene.
F1 is a uniquely demanding use case. Cars can exceed 200 mph, and players can instantly change camera direction, making traditional temporal reuse techniques less effective. On top of that, night races can feature over 325,000 dynamic light sources. To handle this, EA combined ReSTIR for efficient light sampling, ReGIR for spatial light preselection, and hierarchical light structures to avoid sampling “light soup.” These techniques allow the engine to maintain stability and reduce noise, even during fast motion.
Denoising also plays a critical role in making real-time path tracing viable. EA uses NVIDIA’s NRD for cross-platform support and DLSS Ray Reconstruction for higher-end setups. On console, it makes use of PSSR to both upscale and stabilize the final image. EA confirmed the PS5 Pro demo is already running in real time, albeit as an early prototype. “[This] is a prototype, and I make no commitment that we will ship it,” said the developer. “But it shows that PT isn’t limited to high-end PC hardware, it could make its way to mainstream hardware.”
