In context: Earlier generations of AMD graphics playing cards have lagged behind Nvidia’s in ray tracing efficiency, however Workforce Purple’s most up-to-date Radeon RX 9000 GPUs have made important strides in closing the hole. Quite a few latest patents counsel the corporate is just simply getting began, with future {hardware} probably making ray tracing and path tracing extra accessible.
Reddit person MrMPFR’s evaluation of AMD patents from the previous yr and a half reveals that the corporate is critical about treating ray tracing as the way forward for real-time graphics rendering. Whereas Nvidia has pushed a lot of the expertise’s progress during the last a number of years, Workforce Purple may lastly be closing the hole – and maybe even pulling forward.
In its push to enhance ray tracing efficiency throughout a wider vary of {hardware}, AMD has filed quite a few patents since round January 2023. Over an extended interval, it has additionally employed ray tracing consultants from Nvidia, Intel, and academia. An in depth breakdown of AMD’s patents signifies the corporate is aiming for parity with the RT and neural rendering options Nvidia launched in its not too long ago launched RTX 5000 graphics playing cards.
AMD could have integrated a few of this newly developed expertise into the RDNA 4 structure used within the Radeon RX 9000 sequence, which practically matches the RTX 5000 in ray tracing efficiency. For instance, TechSpot’s evaluation exhibits that the RX 9070 XT matches or outperforms the RTX 5070 Ti in most titles.
Nevertheless, AMD nonetheless struggles with essentially the most demanding RT tech in a couple of video games, resembling Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, Alan Wake II, and Black Fantasy Wukong.
If a ray tracing arms race is brewing between AMD and Nvidia, making superior ray tracing and path tracing options accessible at playable body charges for common customers is probably going a key objective.
Additionally see: Is Ray Tracing Well worth the FPS Hit? 36 Recreation Efficiency Investigation
Our ray tracing breakdown from final yr signifies that Alan Wake II and Wukong are among the many few video games the place ray tracing considerably improves visuals, although absolutely benefiting from these enhancements nonetheless requires spending at the least a thousand {dollars} on a GPU.
AMD’s latest work on BVH (bounding quantity hierarchy) administration, ray traversal, and different options might considerably decrease the {hardware} entry barrier with UDNA, the upcoming successor to RDNA 4. Creating equivalents to Nvidia’s applied sciences – together with the large polygon rely boosts from RTX Mega Geometry – might additionally make these options extra enticing to builders.
UDNA is anticipated to energy the subsequent era of AMD graphics playing cards, and the graphics chip for Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 6 reportedly makes use of an early model of the structure. In the meantime, Nvidia is anticipated to launch its Rubin structure in direct competitors, although particulars about its characteristic set stay scarce.
