Did Sony just leak that AMD's next graphics card will have ray tracing?

(Image credit: Future)

We've long suspected that AMD would put ray tracing support on the hardware level in its Navi 20 GPUs due out next year. But, Sony might have just spilled the beans on AMD's ray tracing support. 

Sony just revealed some more information about the AMD Navi-powered PS5 in an exclusive interview with Wired, and in it, Mark Cerny straight up said "there is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware". So, we know at least one AMD Navi GPU in 2020 will support hardware-level ray tracing. The big question is, then, how will this reflect on AMD's desktop graphics cards?

Well, we've already heard that ray tracing would be making its way to AMD's next generation of graphics cards: the Navi 20. These graphics cards, if real, will compete with Nvidia at the high-end, which is something that AMD simply doesn't do right now. But, recently AMD did say it would make a graphics card for "everyone", so maybe that includes folks that want to play Control at 4K with Ray Tracing. 

Honestly, we think it's extremely unlikely for AMD to make a GPU going in the PS5 and Xbox Project Scarlett that will support ray tracing while leaving desktop users out to dry. We're fully expecting AMD to come out with a line of high-end GPUs next year - maybe even as early as CES 2020. 

Either way, we're sure AMD will be sharing information on its next graphics cards as soon as its ready, we just have to wait and see. But, the way we look at it, the sooner AMD can take Nvidia on in the same way it did with Intel, the sooner everyone on the hunt for a new graphics card wins. 

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Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.