Samsung’s ray tracing ready SoC is part of wider push to offer desktop-level gaming on smartphones

The boom in mobile gaming and the popularity of games such as PUBG Mobile have encouraged OEMs and chip makers to offer more desktop-level gaming features such as 120Hz or higher refresh rates, high touch sampling rate and overclockable processors (increasing CPU clock speed to make the device run faster) on smartphones.  

Now Samsung has launched a mobile system on chip (SoC) Exynos 2200 that offers GPU based on AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture. What it entails is that the smartphones powered by the new Exynos processor will be able to take advantage of the hardware-accelerated ray tracing feature.  

Ray Tracing is a process of graphics rendering that simulates inside a game how light travels in the real world, resulting in more natural shadows, reflections and refractions as light ray comes in contact with other objects in the game. It is one of the key highlights of the RT series of GPUs offered by Nvidia and AMD’s RX series GPUs used in desktops PCs and gaming laptops.  

Also read: CES 2022: Samsung unveils monitors for gamers, entertainment & WFH consumers

Last month, Qualcomm had unveiled its latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC that offers a bunch of high-end gaming features such as desktop-class volumetric rendering, which allows game developers to recreate more realistic fog, smoke and particle effect in the games. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also supports Unreal Engine 5 and has Frame Motion Engine that can generate twice as many frames in a game without consuming additional power. Support for Unreal Engine 5 means developers will be able to create more desktop-like cinematic experiences in mobile games. Unreal Engine 5 offers a more dynamic global illumination and reflection system based on ray tracing.  

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also has an Adreno control panel that will allow gamers to customise the GPU parameters such as frames per second (FPS) or texture filtering. This is a common feature in gaming notebooks and is also found in high-end gaming smartphones.  

Though many see foldable phones as a productivity device for multi-tasking, their large screen can offer a lot more legroom for gaming. The Samsung Galaxy Z fold, for instance, offers a 7.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and resolution of 1768 x 2208p, which makes it ideal for gaming.   

Smartphones with refresh rates ranging from 120Hz to 144Hz are quite common in mid and premium smartphones. Until sometime back it was available mostly in gaming laptops and monitors. Higher refresh rates lift the gaming experience by improving reaction time and reducing motion blurs in fast-paced action or racing games. More mobile games now support 120Hz or higher refresh rates, which makes having devices supporting a lot more appealing for gamers.