Black Mesa, the fan-made remake of the original Half-Life, looks jaw-droppingly beautiful with RTX Remix path tracing, but it comes at a steep performance cost-even for high-end GPUs. A new video from YouTuber MxBenchmarkPC showcases how the Remixed mod transforms the game visually, adding impressive lighting effects, 2K/4K textures, and modernized assets.
The result is stunning but punishing on hardware.
With path tracing enabled and DLSS set to Performance mode, even NVIDIA’s flagship RTX 5080 struggles to keep the game above 40 FPS at 4K. Without path tracing, the game cruises at over 200 FPS. This makes Frame Generation an essential feature to maintain smooth performance, revealing once again that full path tracing remains a hardware monster-even in older titles.
The Black Mesa Remixed mod isn’t just about path tracing. It overhauls the game with over 100 reworked materials, high-res textures, new geometry, and redesigned lighting. It even improves the iconic train intro and parts of the lab environment, offering a richer and more immersive atmosphere.
Available on ModDB, the mod is worth experiencing even without RTX enabled. For fans of Half-Life and modding, it’s a visual upgrade that breathes fresh life into a classic title-just be prepared to dial back some settings if you want it to run well.