Intel Xe HPG DG2 Gaming GPU 'Right Around The Corner' To Challenge AMD And NVIDIA
We are all eager to see how Intel's foray into the discrete graphics card space turns out, both initially and longer term, after it has had a chance to wade into the new space that is currently dominated by AMD and NVIDIA. The first foray, incidentally, is "right around the corner." Those are words of Pete Brubaker, Game Developer Relations Engineer at Intel.
Brubaker made the comment in a Twitter post announcing a job opening at Intel, for a Senior Game Developer Relations Engineer.
"Come with with us at Intel! DG2 is right around the corner, it's about to get exciting," Brubaker wrote, along with a link to the job opening.
Intel is having fun with its efforts in the discrete GPU space. Back in March, it teased a scavenger hunt on Twitter, with a 33-second clip that began by zooming into an Xe-LP GPU for integrated and low power graphics. In the clip, a beam of energy shoots down from the ceiling, supercharging the GPU as it morphs into an Xe-HPG part.
Up to this point, Intel has remained mostly tight-lipped about its upcoming gaming GPUs, other than to repeatedly acknowledge that it fully intends on competing in the gaming space, and expects to have some kind of product out the door before the end of the year.
"In addition to mobile, Intel is working with its partners to bring Xe-LP-based discrete graphics to value desktops in the first half of 2021. Intel is on the path to improve the visual computing experience for billions of people as it continues to ramp up Xe architecture products and software initiatives, with the Xe-LP based Intel Server GPU shipping this year and Xe-HP and Xe-HPG products arriving in 2021," Intel said earlier this year.
Intel has made rather quick work with its Xe architecture, which is already available on certain mobile platforms, as integrated solutions. And in January of last year, Intel sampled a discrete DG1 Software Development Vehicle (SDV) to its ISV partners, to get accustomed to its architecture and optimize their code for Xe.
Rumor has it the DG2 will be offered with up to 512 execution units, a 2.2GHz clock speed, and 16GB of GDDR6 memory tied to a 256-bit memory bus. A previous leak suggested it would perform somewhere between a GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3080 (perhaps roughly on par with a not-yet-released GeForce RTX 3070 Ti).
NVIDIA would still have the fastest GPUs on the market, but if Intel is able to come out of the gate with a card that competes with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and does it this year, then it quickly becomes a whole new ballgame.
