On Nov. 8, Imagination Technologies, a British semiconductor design company, announced the launch of its new generation GPU IP, the IMG DXD, aimed at PC desktops and the cloud gaming market.
It's important to note that the IMG DXD is not a finished chip but a GPU IP core. Chip design companies downstream will use this IP core as a foundation to create their own chips. This process is akin to how Qualcomm and MediaTek develop their Snapdragon and Dimensity chips based on ARM's Cortex-A series CPU processors. Imagination has stated that the new IMG DXD product has already been licensed by desktop market customers.
In terms of technical features, the IMG DXD boasts 2.25 times the single-core performance of its predecessor, the IMG BXT, and its dual-core configuration can deliver up to 5 TFLOPS of FP32 and 144 GTexels/s of computational power. Utilizing virtualization technology, each GPU core can run up to eight gaming instances, supporting DirectX 11, making the IMG DXD suitable for cloud gaming scenarios.
Beyond the standard performance upgrades, the IMG DXD also supports Microsoft's DirectX 11 API, which means it can run mainstream DirectX 11 PC games as well as other Windows-based applications and mobile games.
This is Imagination's highest-performing GPU for PCs and cloud gaming, and its support for DirectX 11 is expected to help expand its market reach. Kristof Beets, Vice President of Innovation Technology at Imagination, conveyed to Interface News that DirectX 11 is a critical API for the PC market, dominating the entire ecosystem and serving as the foundation for running high-end desktop games.
Market Positioning and Competition
The support for DirectX marks a further step in Imagination's product strategy, which now spans mobile, consumer, automotive, CPU, data center, and desktop markets.
Beets explained that the IMG DXD is optimized for cloud gaming, supporting multi-user, scalable features. Imagination plans to support developers with tools and ecosystem support to reduce usage and adaptation costs. Compared to traditional desktop GPU manufacturers, the IMG DXD is marketed as offering a better price-performance ratio.
Major independent GPU chip manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD already have solutions in this field, which are considered mainstream. Nvidia's RTX servers, for instance, provide AAA game and VR content, supporting telecom operators to offer low-latency AR/VR and cloud gaming services over 5G networks. Similarly, AMD's solutions have been used in services like the now-defunct Google Stadia cloud gaming service.
As the world's fourth-largest chip IP company, Imagination's IP has been widely used in products like the iPhone and iPad, and in recent years, it has expanded into the automotive and data center sectors. The company is also a licensor of IP to several Chinese startup GPU companies, which integrate Imagination's GPU with RISC-V CPUs into a single SoC.
The release of the new product by Imagination is expected to help startup companies enter the cloud gaming field and challenge the existing market structure.
Focus on the Chinese Market
China is a significant target market for IMG DXD, largely because cloud-based Android gaming is very popular there. Cloud service providers, including Tencent, Huawei, and Kingsoft Cloud, have launched Android cloud gaming solutions, and IMG DXD aims to penetrate this market.
Liu Guojun, Vice President and General Manager of Imagination in China, told Interface News that the Chinese market has significantly driven Imagination's business growth, and the company can offer local chip designers more competitive advantages in applications.
