Custom PC - UK (2020-01)

What’s perhaps more likely is that we’ll see
even more of a split between the highest-end
parts that will serve double duty for compute
and gaming, and lower-end parts that are just
for gaming. Of course, what consumers will
probably care most if this happens is whether
ray-tracing support gets added to these
cheaper cards.
We can certainly see the logic in continuing
to omit it, as ray tracing still impacts
performance considerably, and these less
powerful cards just won’t have the grunt to
deal with it. Especially as the RT hardware
is spread out across the GPU (and so its
performance scales along with the size of the
rest of the GPU), and not just a single dedicated
unit. However, when you look at the difference
ray tracing can make to an otherwise
graphically simple game such as Minecraft
or Quake, it’s clear there’s a market for a GPU
that provides more basic general rendering
performance but still has some RT chops.
Whatever happens, it feels like the GPU
market is entering one of its more exciting
periods in some time, and we can’t wait to see
what both AMD and Nvidia (not to mention,
Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony!) have in store
for us next.

RAY TRACING

3

2

1

BOX A BOX B

RAY 2 RAY 1

EYE

BOXA

TEST

BOXB

TEST

TRIANGLE 3

TEST

RAY 1

EYE MISS

TERMINATERAY!

RAY 2

EYE

HIT,KEEPTRAVERSING

HIT,KEEPTRAVERSING

HIT,SHADE

EYE

EYE

E

Ray tracing follows the path of rays emitted from a

virtual eye and projected at the objects in the scene

Ray tracing can transform the look of even

otherwise basic-looking games such as Minecraft