Bringing ray tracing to mobile

IMG CXT GPUs introduced the world to the revolutionary PowerVR Photon architecture which remains the most efficient ray tracing solution on the market. With up to 1.1GRay/s ray tracing performance available, CXT-powered devices bring beautiful shadows, reflections, global illumination, and ambient occlusion with high frame rates to users on the go.

View our white paper

Breathtaking ray traced visuals

This demo showcases IMG CXT GPU in action, featuring the PowerVR Photon architecture. PowerVR Photon enables an unprecedented level of desktop-quality ray traced effects, within a mobile power budget. The effects include soft shadows, reflections and global illumination.

Why choose IMG CXT?

Super efficient ray tracing

IMG CXT is based on the Photon architecture which remains the most efficient ray tracing solution on the market. It is the best way to deliver ray traced graphics to area and power constrained devices.

A leap in performance

With 50% more compute, texturing and geometry performance than the IMG B-Series GPU IP, the IMG CXT offers exceptional FPS/W efficiency.

Expert support

Imagination only succeeds when our customers succeed. We offer tailored support for integrating Imagination IP into a product, as well as access to a regularly updated DDK and our comprehensive suite of developer tools.

IMG CXT Applications

mobile icon

Mobile

IMG CXT is a balanced solution for mobile gaming and graphics, with up to 50% more geometry, texturing and compute performance per core compared to previous generation IMG BXT GPUs.
dtv icon

Desktop

With its power efficiency, great graphics performance and 1.5TFLOPS of compute in a single core configuration, IMG CXT is an option for certain desktop and data centre use cases.

Imagination Technologies’ IMG CXT IP has been named the Best Processor IP in Linley Group’s 2021 Analysts’ Choice Awards.

Find out more

“The CXT RT3 is the first licensable GPU to enable real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing in a smartphone power budget. The innovative architecture will bring mobile gamers the realism that until now required an expensive console or PC-graphics card.”

Linley Group logo

Mike Demler

Senior Analyst

The flagship configuration

The flagship IMG CXT configuration delivers a texturing rate of 48ppc and 1.5TFLOPS compute performance. It features three Scalable Processing Units each with its own Ray Acceleration Cluster (RAC) that when combined can process up to 1.1Gray/s. The design is balanced and optimised for the highest efficiency.
Find out more

PowerVR Photon architecture

Ray tracing can be done with varying levels of performance and efficiency. To define the different approaches, we established the Ray Tracing Levels System (RTLS), ranging from Level 0 to Level 5.

Imagination’s Photon architecture represents a decade of development in making ray tracing not just viable, but rapid, in low-power embedded devices such as smartphones. We have added a new block into the PowerVR GPU called a ray acceleration cluster, or RAC. This block is responsible for all ray tracing activity. It is the most efficient ray tracing option on the market, sitting at Level 4 on the RTLS.

Download white paper

Why ray tracing matters

Ray tracing is a game-changing 3D graphics technology that imitates how light behaves in the real world. This makes it possible to create 3D scenes that are near indistinguishable from real life. It has proven to be a compelling technology in high-end desktop gaming; by enabling more realistic lighting and shadows it is bringing photorealism in games a step closer. For example, it can

  • Replace hard-edged rasterised shadows with beautiful and realistic ray traced soft shadows.
  • Offer realistic reflections off surfaces, depending on their material.
  • Make the shadows or reflections of enemies in a game appear before they arrive on screen.

    On mobile devices, it is important to achieve this experience without compromising playing time or device thermals. As a Level 4 RTLS solution Imagination GPUs can deliver ray tracing to mobile more efficiently than any other solution on the market today.

    • Other GPUs from Imagination

    GPU IP from Imagination that will give you the edge.

    IMG BXT

    Part of Imagination’s multi-core B-Series range, BXT GPUs scale from 1 – 6TFLOPS compute performance and 32 – 128Gpixel/s rendering performance for higher-quality effects and higher-resolution rendering. With up to 30% lower power draw than previous generations, BXT enables solutions that scale from mobile to the cloud.

    Find out more

    IMG CXM

    IMG CXM is the smallest GPU to support HDR user interfaces. It is a highly efficient, feature-rich GPU that enables consumer technology creators to provide enriching visual experiences at a lower cost and with more design flexibility.  

    Find out more

    IMG DXT

    IMG DXT evolves the Photon architecture to deliver the next level of performance efficiency, while also offering ray tracing in several configurations and performance points. This means that manufacturers looking to deliver a ray-tracing capable device at a lower cost can take a half-RAC per SPU while still providing the ultimate mobile visual experience. DXT offers single, dual, triple and quad-RAC configurations. 

    Find out more