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Ray tracing has become synonymous with stunningly realistic visuals in video games since NVIDIA’s Turing architecture debuted in late 2018. While NVIDIA embraced hardware-accelerated ray tracing, AMD remained relatively quiet, raising questions about their approach to this evolving technology. Despite launching the Radeon VII and the Navi RX 5700 series without explicit ray tracing support, AMD recently revealed a patent application for “Hybrid Ray Tracing,” filed in December 2017, suggesting a different strategy.

A Blend of Hardware and Software

AMD’s Hybrid Ray Tracing proposes a novel approach by combining hardware and software to achieve ray tracing effects without dedicated hardware units. This method allows developers to leverage existing shader cores for ray tracing computations. By dividing ray data into smaller packets and utilizing high-speed cache memory for processing, the technique aims to maximize the efficiency of both software and existing hardware. This innovative approach could potentially bring ray tracing capabilities to a wider range of hardware, eliminating the need for specialized and often expensive hardware components.

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Comparisons and Considerations

Some argue that this hybrid approach might be less efficient than dedicated ray tracing cores like those found in NVIDIA’s Turing architecture. However, it’s worth recalling a similar situation with PhysX, a physics processing engine initially requiring dedicated hardware. NVIDIA later successfully integrated PhysX processing into software using CUDA cores, demonstrating the potential of software-based solutions.

Implications for Next-Gen Consoles

The timing of this patent revelation coincides with reports that both Microsoft’s Xbox (Project Scarlett) and Sony’s PlayStation 5, both utilizing AMD’s RDNA architecture, will support ray tracing. This suggests that AMD’s Hybrid Ray Tracing could be the underlying technology enabling this feature on the upcoming consoles. This potential integration into next-gen consoles could significantly expand the reach of ray tracing technology and drive its adoption in future game development.

The Future of Ray Tracing with AMD

While it’s too early to definitively assess the real-world performance of Hybrid Ray Tracing, it offers a promising alternative approach. This innovative solution could democratize access to ray tracing, making it more accessible for gamers and developers alike. It will be interesting to see how this technology evolves and its impact on the future of visual fidelity in gaming.

Further Reading

For a more in-depth understanding of AMD’s Hybrid Ray Tracing technology, the full patent documentation is available here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20190197761.pdf. Further information is also available from Tom’s Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-patents-hybrid-ray-tracing-solution,39761.html.