Intel confirms discrete Xe GPUs will have ray-tracing

Yesterday we already wrote about Intel's claim that the upcoming Mobility Xe IGPs in the Tiger Lake processor generation will offer roughly double the performance as the Iris Plus graphics found in the 10th Gen Core CPUs. The Xe-based Gen12 will shoot at 60fps for Full HD gaming with popular eSports titles.

Now the next bit of news coming from Japan concerns racing. Over at the IDC in Tokyo, Intel Director of Tech Kenichiru Yasu reiterated that the discrete Xe GPUs will support ray tracing:

Moreover, however, now that Nvidia has been working hard on marketing Ray tracing, it appears Intel will also be joining the force. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that AMD has also been working on its own ray-tracing solutions. Ray tracing for Intel’s Xe GPUs is said to be limited to the discrete graphics cards.

While NVIDIA received a lot of ridicule for its "RTX On", it does seem like ray tracing is here to stay. Long considered the holy grail of video game rendering, ray tracing will likely become mainstream the coming decade. At the moment, the computing power isn't really there yet but with NVIDIA, AMD and Intel all supporting ray tracing it's probably just a matter of time until this technique is the standard.