Intel’s DG1 GPU Coming to Discrete Desktop Cards Next Year; OEM-Only
by Ryan Smith on October 31, 2020 12:01 PM EST
Alongside today’s launch of Intel’s DG1-based Iris Xe MAX graphics for laptops, the company is also quietly confirming that DG1 will be coming to desktop video cards as well, albeit in a roundabout way.
Though still in the early stages, a hereto unnamed third party has reached an agreement with Intel to produce DG1-based desktop cards. These cards, in turn, will be going into OEM desktop systems, and they are expected to appear early next year.
The very brief statement from Intel doesn’t contain any other details. The company isn’t saying anything about the specifications of the OEM desktop cards (e.g. clockspeeds), nor are they naming the third party that will be making the cards, or any OEMs who might be using the cards. For today at least, this is a simple notification that there will be OEM cards next year.
As for the market for such cards, there are a couple of avenues. OEMs could decide to treat the cards similarly to how Iris Xe MAX is being positioned in laptops, which is to say as a cheap add-in accelerator for certain GPU-powered tasks. Intel has baked a significant amount of video encode performance into the Xe-LP architecture, so the cards could be positioned as video encode accelerators. This would be very similar to Intel’s own plans, as the company will be selling a DG1-based video encode card for servers called the SG1.
Alternatively, the third party may just be looking to sell the DG1 card to OEMs as simple entry-level discrete graphics cards. Based on what we know about Xe MAX for laptops, DG1 is not expected to be significantly more powerful than Tiger Lake integrated graphics. However, as pointed out by our own Dr. Ian Cutress, it should be a good bit better than any comtemporary Atom’s integrated GPU.
Sadly, the OEM card probably won't be as fancy as Intel's DG1 development card
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Byte - Wednesday, November 4, 2020 - link
There are a LOT of users who don't game. I suspect this should help most of these use cases. Good for accelerating Adobe Suite, CAD, Video Encoding, Data Processing/AI.Gaming cards have always been kinda hit and miss for those purposes. Good to see more of a "Media Processor" be available.
silencer12 - Wednesday, November 11, 2020 - link
Quote "AMD and Nvidia's latest cards will most likely beat the Xe by a large margin and they both come with much more mature drivers"Intel hired former AMD senior graphics VP to design their graphics at Intel three years ago. I doubt the large margin. Intel also hired another AMD executive last year. "Masooma Bhaiwala" to head their graphics department.
You should look it up.
igor velky - Saturday, October 31, 2020 - link
But im really interested what products will Apple put this in...tipoo - Sunday, November 1, 2020 - link
None? I'm going with none. They've already announced their transition to in house ARM chips and the first macs with it will be shown this November. There's really not much space for this weak IGP turned dedicated GPU in their line anyways.desii - Saturday, October 31, 2020 - link
I imagine there have to be people like me, who don't want a big power hungry gaming card, but still want to handle several screens (via DP) without stuttering.AMD doesn't make such cards anymore, so that leaves just Nvidia, with products like the 1030 (only 2 outputs) or the 1650. If Intel can offer something comparable with good drivers I'd be very interested.
>just use integrated graphics
Well, AMD CPUs don't have that, except in their somewhat gimped APUs. And I'm not interested in Intel CPUs right now (assuming their integrated graphics is even good enough for multiple high res screens).
5080 - Saturday, October 31, 2020 - link
Matrox still makes multi display cards. Mostly used for digital signage.vladx - Saturday, October 31, 2020 - link
Matrox unfortunately uses Nvidia GPUs underneath.thunderbird32 - Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - link
Didn't that just recently happen though? I don't think anything they currently have on the market uses NVIDIA GPUs.thomasg - Saturday, October 31, 2020 - link
AMD still does have such a card, although they themselves consider it very niche and don't advertise it to any relevant degree.That card is the Sapphire GPRO 4300, a specialiced Polaris variant only sold via Sapphire, and offers 4 DisplayPorts for a lower price than any comparable nVidia offering.
For the customers that needf signed GL drivers, there's also the WX 3200, which basically offers the same for the same price.
So AMD still has offerings for that segment, but since its a niche segment, there's also few models made.
p1esk - Sunday, November 1, 2020 - link
This will not compete well with 3060 or 3050 down the line.