Intel have confirmed that their first discrete Xe GPU remains to be on monitor to launch earlier than the tip of 2020. Code-named DG1, the graphics card is presently in manufacturing and can start transport earlier than the tip of the yr, simply in time for an almighty showdown between the upcoming Nvidia Ampere playing cards and the next-generation of AMD Navi GPUs.
Information across the DG1’s actual specs are nonetheless skinny on the bottom in the mean time, however Intel have revealed a couple of extra particulars about its Xe-LP micro structure at their Architecture Day 2020 convention in the present day. Xe-LP (standing for low energy) is one in all two Xe-based architectures being readied by Intel, and it’s set to be their most effective structure for PC and laptops but.
Xe-LP GPUs will comprise as much as 96 EUs, or execution items, in accordance with Intel (which is their model of Nvidia’s CUDA cores and AMD’s Stream Processors), and can assist a variety of DirectX 12 options resembling asynchronous compute (which permits it to carry out graphics and compute workloads concurrently), sampler suggestions (which permits games to load into reminiscence solely the bits it wants for a selected scene) and examine instancing (which is all to do with operating shaders and rendering).
It may also assist Intel’s new Intel Graphics Command Centre software program, which is able to introduce options resembling on the spot game tuning, video seize, streaming and adaptive picture sharpening for improved efficiency, the latter of which may also supported by AMD’s Big Navi playing cards and their second gen RDNA structure and Nvidia’s RTX GPUs.
The second Xe structure they revealed in the present day was Xe-HP (standing for prime energy). The first Xe-HP chip “has been powered on and [is] back from the labs”, in accordance with Intel, nevertheless it gained’t be out there till subsequent yr. Still, the important thing factor about Xe-HP is that it’s going to scalable, offering “data centre-class, rack-level media performance” in a spread of various type components and variants.
One such variant is the Xe-HPG, which is Intel’s gaming optimised micro structure. This is more likely to be the place Intel’s correct Nvidia and AMD gaming GPU rivals will originate from, as Intel says Xe-HPG will mix the efficiency per watt constructing blocks from their Xe-LP microarchitecture with the size of Xe-HP to create a spread of gaming-focused configurations.
Intel additionally confirmed that Xe-HPG may also have GDDR6 reminiscence and accelerated ray tracing assist, and that their first Xe-HPG GPUs are anticipated to begin transport someday in 2021.
As a end result, it would in all probability nonetheless be a while earlier than we see the epic Intel vs Nvidia vs AMD showdown we’ve been ready for, however I’m nonetheless very intrigued by what Intel’s DG1 Xe card goes to be able to. When they first showed it off one of their mobile Xe chips at CES earlier this yr, it was in a position to play Destiny 2 at a gradual body charge on a fairly thin-looking laptop computer. Intel additionally mentioned on the time that their Xe cell GPUs will be capable to double the graphics efficiency of their built-in Core graphics chips, too, which may sign the tip of huge costly gaming laptops – and if that’s what their cell variations are going to offer, then I can’t wait to see what their Xe-LP GPUs are going to do to the finances finish of the present graphics card spectrum.
Alas, we nonetheless don’t know precisely when Intel’s Xe DG1 GPU will arrive earlier than the tip of the yr, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly one to look at.
