After months of speculation about Intel’s first discrete graphics card, we finally have an official announcement! The Intel XE GPU is based on Gen 12 graphics and will act as a testing platform for Intel. This is not just a great announcement for Intel fans. Another discrete GPU manufacturer in the mix means more choice and is, therefore, better for the consumer.
Intel CEO Bob Swan confirmed the discrete graphics card in the latest earnings report. Chris Spook, Intel’s graphics marketing chief also confirmed this in a follow-up tweet.
While there have been some leaks regarding the Intel XE lineup, we still don’t have any detailed information. The only leaks so far are a few renders and speculations regarding ray-tracing support. Overall, Intel has managed to keep the leaks to a minimum while quietly working on it. Chris Spook also teased that the prototype powered on is called “DG1”.
The DG1 naming means that the prototype will act as a testing platform for Intel. This will help them familiarize themselves with the manufacturing process and other details. Intel will likely focus on the more entry-level spectrum of things before moving onto high-performance components.
Notebookcheck previously leaked an iDG1LP that included a GPU for only 25W of total power. Given that Intel will offer 2X performance per iteration, this will likely have a power of 1-2 TFLOPS. There’s still no info regarding the process that the XE graphics cards will be based on. However, rumors suggest that it will be based on the 7nm or 10nm process. My money is on 10nm.
Chris also confirmed that the Intel XE graphics cards will be available by the end of 2020. We can expect more information to surface during Computex ’20.
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