Imagination Technologies has unveiled its new IMG DXT graphics processing unit (GPU) for mobile games with ray-tracing capabilities.
The chip is the latest in an effort to make mobile gaming more immersive with a more realistic visual experience. It has 50% better performance than the previous generation GPUs.
Kristof Beets, vice president of technology at Imagination Technologies, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the main driving force besides GPU chip improvements is still gaming and the market continues to grow significantly.
“Quality alone is not enough,” says Beets. “We also need to provide enough performance for that gaming. So how do we get high enough frame rates? The problem with mobile, of course, is that it is a battery-powered product.”
Making energy-efficient chips is the solution. But it’s worth it, as mobile gamers are expected to grow from 2.6 billion in 2022 to 3.9 billion in 2030, according to ABI Research. And more than 95% of gamers are expected to use a mobile device by 2026.
The imagination has been on the treadmill quite a bit. The company announced its AXT GPU series in 2019, followed by the BXT in 2020 and the CXT in 2021. Licensors are launching their products about 18 months after the announcements.
Imagination focuses on markets ranging from mobile devices to self-driving cars. Last year, it made its way into the ray-tracing function that had previously been the domain of high-end GPUs for desktops or gaming consoles.
The DXT has 50% more performance and computing power, with 2.25 teraflops at FP32, 72 gigatexels per second, and 9.0 TOPS AI performance.
“We’re enabling more performance at higher density,” Beets said. “The elements are more about how to bring ray tracing to the mass market.”
The GPU has features such as 2D dual-rate texturing, a RISC-V firmware processor, ASTC HDR support, and pipelined data masters. The chip will be able to make improvements to its pipeline and more. It has support for the Open Source Game Engine.
There are three members in the DXT family ranging from 256 gigaflops to 2.25 teraflops.
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