I think andyzee is describing photon mapping, which is above and beyond simple ray tracing. Ray tracing (from the eye, which I believe to be the standard usage) does not naturally produce soft shadows or diffuse interreflection (which I assume he meant, because interreflection is plainly visible up to the stated three bounces). Adding more bounces to the rays wouldn't add much visually, excepting the depth to which you could trace between reflective surfaces (e.g., how many reflections you'd see in facing mirrors).

Thanks 3vi1, those are my thoughts exactly. I do appreciate graphical realism, but if they can't be made smooth and playable (average 60+ fps, 30 fps min.) then the good graphics aren't worth the time and effort.

I had recently watched a "3D" movie at the theater with my daughter; and the action sometimes moved to fast you to identify what is on screen. I don't think that this is an issue with the 3D effect of the film, but more to do with lacking enough frames in-between the shots to make out which direction the motion is moving in. It made for several disorienting seconds of the film but left a disfavorable impression with both of us.

yeah when graphics engines and hardware get to this point on a normal basis we'll be in for something until you get a job making six figures a year and I'm talking more than 100000 especially after this presidential election because the tax rate will go up rofl and it gets dwon to a mere 1000 dollar video cards the graphics industry (talking about gameing developement) won't touch it or until they actually get dual triple graphics cards working to at least a 75% ratio and you can afford two decent graphics cards that can do it for less than 1500 this is a pipe dream for now although I wish it was'nt true.

The problem with the nvidia devices for raytracing is that they dont cope with random memory access patterns very well - usually incur a 600 cycle latency on a global memory fetch. Not exactly conducive for ray tracing where you need to access scene object data in a largely random pattern.
I agree with andyzee: to progress with ray-tracing as a viable rendering alternative we need to rethink the whole way raytracing is implemented or optimize the acceleration structures in such a way to suit nvidia hardware.
For the quality of image you get I really think it is worth doing.