Intel announced the news at this week’s FMX graphics trade show in Germany. Xe is primarily designed for data centers, but according to Tom’s Hardware, there will be a second architecture for discreet graphics card aimed at the consumer market.
For gamers, ray tracing brings cinematic rendering by rendering how light is absorbed, reflected, or refracted on surfaces in real time. Initially, Intel’s support for ray tracing will be for the company’s data center graphics cards. Intel’s line of discrete graphics cards are scheduled for a 2020 launch.
Though Nvidia’s GeForce RTX graphics are targeted at consumer desktops and laptops, Intel’s Xe graphics architecture is used primarily for data centers. Intel is targeting creatives with its server-based technology, and the company envisions that hardware-based ray tracing on its Xe architecture will be utilized for visual effects and in animated films.
There’s speculation, however, that support for ray tracing could trickle down to Intel’s forthcoming line of consumer graphics cards. “Given that this type of functionality is typically embedded at a foundational level in the microarchitecture, Intel’s support for ray tracing with data center graphics cards strongly implies the desktop variants could also support the same functionality, though it is noteworthy that the company is splitting its offerings into two distinct architectures,” Tom’s Hardware reported.
