Earlier this week, we bought our first glimpse of Intel’s Xe GPU in motion once they confirmed a dwell demo of it operating Destiny 2 on one in all their new Tiger Lake laptops throughout their CES press convention. At the time, the GPU code-named DG1 was buried deep contained in the laptop computer, however now Intel have launched some official pictures of the desktop model of their upcoming Xe graphics card as properly. Technically, Intel are calling it their “DG1 software development vehicle” (or DG1 SDV), however that is what’s now being shipped to software program corporations world wide to get them prepared for what Xe has to supply when it launches later this yr.
As you may see from the photographs above, The DG1 SDV is kind of a small little factor with only a single fan to maintain itself cool and a smattering of blue LEDs down one aspect. No different desktop GPUs had been proven to press throughout CES, though I’m positive there can be different, bigger variations available for purchase as soon as Xe has its official launch later within the yr.
Indeed, Intel instructed Anandtech that they’re solely producing small portions of this DG1 SDV proper now in order that software program makers can begin getting themselves prepared forward of Xe’s launch date.
As for particulars on the Xe DG1 card itself, Intel are nonetheless holding their, ahem, playing cards very near their chest for the time being. Intel haven’t revealed something about its underlying structure, its energy necessities or what sort of efficiency we would be capable of anticipate from it. Instead, the principle focus at CES this yr appears to have simply been to point out that it’s working, which Intel did on stage throughout their press convention, albeit in laptop computer type somewhat than on a desktop.
What we do know, although, is that the Xe GPU structure as a complete has been designed to scale throughout a number of merchandise and use circumstances, from laptops all the best way as much as knowledge centres. According to Anandtech, the DG1 GPU proven on stage contained in the laptop computer and the DG1 SDV card are each based mostly on what Intel are at present calling their Xe-LP (or low energy) microarchitecture, which can even type the premise of the built-in graphics chips inside their upcoming Tiger Lake CPUs, and there can even be Xe-HP (most likely excessive energy) and Xe-HPC microarchitectures (probably standing for prime efficiency computing) additional down the road.
As a consequence, no matter type the DG1 SDV Xe card takes at retail will probably err towards the lower-end of in the present day’s best graphics cards somewhat than the tremendous high-end. Indeed, the photographs don’t present any sort of energy cable protruding of it, which suggests it’s operating solely off the motherboard’s PCIe slot, making it extra akin to an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1650 than the rest.
That’s under no circumstances a nasty factor, however Intel will probably must do one thing actually fairly particular as a way to break into the already heated competitors between Nvidia and AMD at this finish of the worth spectrum, as there are already a great deal of highly-capable playing cards vying for our hard-earned cash right here. Until Intel inform us a bit extra about it, although, we’ll simply must content material ourselves with the images for now.
For extra information from this yr’s CES, take a look at our CES 2020 tag.
