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Intel Shows Ray Traced Wolfenstein on a Laptop

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Intel doesn't need any GPUs.

Just because Larrabee has been shelved doesn't mean that Intel isn't looking at graphics anymore. In fact, the Intel's background in processors means that it should be more interested than ever in ray tracing, which can product images with accuracy that surpasses even today's best GPUs.

At IDF, Intel is demonstrating a ray traced version of Wolfenstein on a laptop. The game's visuals have been bumped up with a few upgrades. While this is demonstrated on a laptop, all the grunt work is actually done from four servers running a Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture. When the server is finished rendering a frame, it sends to it to the laptop for display.

Check out the video to see it in action and some more in the screenshots below:

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
50 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Humans think
    From the title I thought that it was actually rendering on a laptop.

    4 MIC servers doing the job, is just like saying: look what we could do in 10 years...
    Reply
  • Stifle
    This just in - Work done by servers displayed on a laptop as a game.

    Glad to see the advances in ray tracing taking place though.
    Reply
  • darkchazz
    can it run crysis?
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    Anyone being interested in these technologies is always good.
    Reply
  • godmodder
    4 MIC servers doing the job, is just like saying: look what we could do in 10 years...

    Exactly. What's the point of this demo anyway? Realtime raytracing has been demonstrated many times. Everyone knows it's possible, but:

    - global illumination in realtime is something completely different
    - most images in this demo could have been rendered at a comparable quality with current rasterization technology

    So this demo brings nothing new to the table. Just a marketing stunt from Intel.
    Reply
  • phantom93
    is it me, or does the game still look like crap?
    Reply
  • Azimuth01
    4 mainframes rendering and sending data to a client in real time? I can see this being more useful to cloud gaming services then the individual consumer. By the time this tech is available to the masses in a cost effective package, something cheaper and more efficient will be available.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    I bet if Intel tried this with Crysis, they wouldn't be posting a video of it, sure it's impressive with old games, Mhmm intel? I Dare you to try it with Crysis. well to be honest i think it would perform similarly if they threw enough hardware at it..
    Reply
  • nebun
    ati and nvidia better become good friends with intel
    Reply
  • madass
    joytech22I bet if Intel tried this with Crysis, they wouldn't be posting a video of it, sure it's impressive with old games, Mhmm intel? I Dare you to try it with Crysis. well to be honest i think it would perform similarly if they threw enough hardware at it..
    Umm....Crysis already uses ray tracing for shadows and stuff.
    Reply