Imagination Tech working on mainstream PC gaming with ‘ambitious graphics card and SoC design companies’ — shows off progress with DirectX 11 workloads

The UK’s Imagination Technologies (IMG) is teasing its roadmap to “bring high‑performance, scalable, PowerVR graphics to desktop, workstation, and cloud environments.” We’ve seen and heard of a few false starts from IMG since the start of the 2020s, but this is the firm’s clearest messaging yet, with videos showcasing its work with Microsoft's DirectX, and stating that this work is “essential for mainstream PC gaming.”

IMG will be best known in PC circles, among folk of a certain vintage, for its pioneering PowerVR 3D graphics cards over three decades ago. It was also the graphical force behind the Sega Dreamcast (which launched in 1999). Since then IMG has spent focused on the mobile market, being a key Apple partner between 2007 and 2017.

In 2020 we noted IMG launching its B-Series GPU IP. That was a significant change of tack, after the disastrous mobile upset suddenly delivered by Apple. This IP would become the foundation for Chinese desktop GPU makers like Moore Threads and Innosilicon, despite their boasts of ‘domestic’ graphics tech.

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In 2022, as it celebrated its 30^th anniversary, IMG would confirm that its tech was behind the aforementioned Chinese desktop cards. By this time there had been new generations from the Far East, with models like the 'double power' Fantasy 1 Type B card launching.

A year later Imagination’s IMG DXD, a DirectX‑capable GPU IP line explicitly aimed at desktop, laptop, and cloud gaming markets, were announced. Analysts at JPR thought that this marked IMG’s full hearted re-entry into the high-end PC market. DXD was its first real PC-ready architecture effort since Kryo in 2002.

Handling DirectX workloads with confidence

Today, IMG wanted to let graphics enthusiasts know it has reached a milestone in modern PC graphics support. From the few reviews and hands-on tests we’ve seen of Chinese PowerVR architecture cards, they have often been pretty poor at supporting PC gaming titles, especially newer games.

“We started adding hardware‑based support for DirectX to our GPUs with our last generation, D-Series,” IMG reminds viewers. “Below you can see it in action, in real silicon, handling complex DirectX 11 workloads with confidence.”

This is the same video referenced in the embedded LinkedIn post.

IMG indicates this demo evidences the beginning of its commitment to its long‑term roadmap embracing higher power devices like PCs. It asks that we stay tuned. Of course we will. But even if the demos get better and better, moving up through DX12, and adding other modern frills – it will probably be dismissed by the Crimson Desert devs…

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