Because it is not supported by SoC Tensor G3
The new Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro smartphones do not support hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Because the Tensor G3 SoC does not have such support.
The authors of Android Authority say that Google personally confirmed this to them. Our colleagues also tried to run the In Vitro tests from Basemark and Solar Bay from 3DMark, which are designed to determine performance with ray tracing effects, but the tests did not run on Google’s new products.
New Google products do not support ray tracing
The Tensor G3 is based on the Mali-G715 graphics core, which does not contain blocks for accelerating ray tracing or they are disabled. For comparison: the Immortalis-G715, based on the same architecture, supports tracing.
Let us remind you that tracing is supported by SoC Exynos 2200, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Dimensity 9200, and Apple A17 Pro. That is all current platforms for flagship smartphones. Thus, the new Pixels lag behind all competitors in this regard. However, ray tracing is still not used in games for smartphones.
