Why is Ray Tracing greyed out?

Ray tracing option is greyed out in the menu when hardware or drivers are not compatible.
In rare cases, the Ray tracing option can be greyed out even if users have a compatible GPU. This occurs on some specific Windows versions, that lack support for Shader Model 6.6.
Updating Windows should make the Ray tracing option available, if you have supported hardware.

GPUs that support hardware ray-tracing:

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2000 series
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 series
• AMD Radeon RX 6000 series
• AMD Radeon RX 7000 series