Intel: DG1 GPU Now Shipping, Xe-HPG DG2 GPU In Labs
by Ryan Smith on October 22, 2020 9:30 PM ESTAlongside today’s profitable-but-uneasy earnings report from Intel, the company’s earnings presentation also offered a short update on the status of their discrete GPUs. As of today, Intel’s DG1 GPU is now shipping. Meanwhile the company announced their next GPU, appropriately named DG2, which is based on their upcoming Xe-HPG architecture. This GPU is now back from the fab and is in Intel’s lab, and is now far enough along to have been powered on.
First and foremost we have DG1, or as it’s better known by its commercial product name, Iris Xe Max. Intel’s first discrete GPU in over two decades, the company has since the beginning of this year been touting it as a companion to their Tiger Lake CPUs, pitching it as an upgraded graphics option for thin & light notebooks, and a successor of sorts to Intel’s GT3e and GT4e iGPU configurations from past generations. Until recently, we weren’t quite sure when it would show up in commercial products, but recent OEM notebook reveals along with Intel’s earnings announcement are now confirming that the GPU is shipping to OEMs. According to Intel, DG1-equipped notebooks are expected later in Q4. In the meantime, there are still scant few details on DG1 itself, such as expected performance and power consumption; so hopefully Intel will be getting ahead of its OEM partners on this one to set some expectations.
Meanwhile, today’s notes also announce for the very first time the next discrete GPU to come out of Intel, DG2. While obviously still some time off, Intel has completed tape-out and fabbing of the initial alpha silicon, with the company reporting that they’ve powered-on the GPU in their labs.
Somewhat surprisingly, CEO Bob Swan has also confirmed that this isn’t just a DG1 successor, but instead is a higher performing GPU based on the company’s forthcoming Xe-HPG(aming) architecture. First revealed this summer, Xe-HPG is Intel’s enthusiast/gamer-focused architecture, incorporating marquee features found in similar dGPUs like ray tracing. It’s also being manufactured completely external of Intel; while the company hasn’t said which fab and process node is being used, it’s none of Intel’s nodes. So this is the first major piece of external fabbed silicon that we know of to be up and running at Intel.
But like all teasers/financial disclosures, Intel isn’t saying too much more at this time. Nothing new was revealed about the Xe-HPG architecture, and Intel hasn’t clarified whether DG2 is a big, flagship-grade chip, or a more modest, high-volume part. For now, the company is simply saying that DG2 will “take our discrete graphics capability up the stack into the enthusiast segment.”
Source: Intel
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nadim.kahwaji - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
seems no Rtx 3xxx review :(oRAirwolf - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
If I were Anandtech I wouldn't even bother with a normal 3080 review at this point. It's too late. I would be interested to see an analysis of some of the AIB partner designs like the highest end EVGA and Asus cards. Gamers Nexus is already on the case though so that is somewhat pointless as well.nadim.kahwaji - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
yes sure, but hopefully they will include an architecture Deep Dive (the Anandtech way) :)Spunjji - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
That's what I'm waiting for. I don't much care about a product review - just an analysis of the architecture and why it performs the way it does.PeachNCream - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
They never did a 1050 review either and frequently miss GPU products in the overall stack, but it isn't that important since lots of other companies have shared their reviews already. Given the lateness of the NV3K series reviews, its likely you will never see them posted here without being measured as part of a PC or laptop product's benchmark.DigitalFreak - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
It is strange that this far from launch they still don't have a 3080/3090 review. Maybe they've had a falling out with Nvidia and have to buy their cards like the rest of us.Murloc - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
IIRC the issue is that they only have one reviewer to do GPUs and he had to move because of the fires in california, so it just didn't get done.Kjella - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
I'm sure they had their reasons, but it's not the first big launch Anandtech has failed to cover and it's frustrating to be a fan and get turned away. It's the sports journalist version of missing out on the Olympics, like you write great stuff the rest of the year but seriously bro? I realize that with a virtual organization it's hard to have a backup plan and there's no shortage of alternative reviews so no real harm done, but mentally it's a mismatch between the reliability in quality and the unreliability in delivery.lmcd - Friday, October 23, 2020 - link
The fires in California are pretty unprecedented and could easily have taken down a larger/more centralized outfit as well. This critique is pretty random and arbitrary.Spunjji - Monday, October 26, 2020 - link
Yup. Haven't yet gotten tired of saying I'm tired of people whining about the 3080 review...