Imagination releases high-performance GPU IP with DirectX
The first product in a line of GPU IP with support for DirectX have been launched by Imagination Technologies. IMG DXD is a scalable GPU IP tailor-made for desktop, laptop and cloud gaming graphics experiences, explained the company.
The IMG DXD has a hardware-based implementation of DirectX 11 Feature Level 11_0, and the API coverage to run popular PC games as well as other Windows-based applications and mobile titles. It has already been licensed for use in the desktop market.
“Hardware-based support for DirectX is an essential element of a desktop GPU and, for us, IMG DXD with Feature Level 11_0 is just the start; we are continuing to invest in our API coverage and feature set so that our customers have the GPU IP they need to compete successfully in the desktop market,” said Simon Beresford-Wylie, chief executive officer, Imagination Technologies.
IMG DXD offers 2.25 times the per-core graphics performance of IMG BXT, the GPU currently shipping in PCIe factor boards. An IMG DXD dual-core configuration delivers 5TFLOPS FP32 and 144GTexel per second, more than enough to satisfy mainstream gamers with smooth frame rates. Licensees can leverage Imagination’s innovative multi-core technology to continually scale this performance to higher levels.
For companies looking to optimise service volume and service quality per watt, each individual core can operate independently as a separate GPU instance which, in a cloud gaming scenario, which helps maximise the number of gamers that each GPU can host. Alternatively, for maximum quality for a single user (in either a cloud gaming or desktop scenario), the power of all cores can be combined together.
Imagination’s HyperLane virtualisation technology takes this further, enabling each core to host up to eight gamers with full security and flexible performance management.
It also features the inherent energy efficiencies of the PowerVR tile-based deferred rendering architecture, originally designed to deliver high quality 3D graphics to markets where power consumption is limited by battery life and packaging.
When compared with its closest equivalent IMG BXT configuration, IMG DXD offers 40 to 60 per cent higher peak performance. This improvement is thanks to the inclusion of key performance efficiency features such as dual-rate FP16 for higher compute performance and power efficiency, fragment shading rate to reduce the amount of processing required per frame without impacting the visual experience. It also has 2D dual-rate texturing to speed up post processing effects in games and has support for ASTC HDR to minimise bandwidth when using high quality textures. IMG DXD is a RISC-V based firmware processor with up to 40 per cent higher GPU management performance.
