What we did not get on the occasion, by way of, was a juicy technical breakdown of the Xe graphics structure, and its varied parts that add as much as the GPU. We nonetheless left pleasantly stunned for what we have been proven: it really works! The DG1-SDV is ready to play video games at 1080p, even when they’re technically light-weight titles like “Warframe,” and are not maxing out settings. The SDV is a 15.2 cm-long graphics card that depends on the PCI-Express slot for energy fully (and therefore pulling lower than 75 W).
We already know from Intel’s Xe slides since 2019 that the Xe structure is designed to be extraordinarily scalable, with a single ISA scaling all the best way from iGPUs to tiny discrete GPUs just like the DG1-SDV, and scaling all the best way as much as double-digit TFLOP-scale compute processors for the HPCs. Along the best way, although, Intel intends to compete within the gaming and client-graphics house by creating merchandise at simply the precise scale of the Xe structure, with simply the precise efficiency/Watt to compete with particular merchandise from the NVIDIA-AMD duopoly. Forget the high-end for a second. If Intel is ready to match even the GTX 1650 and RX 5500 (or their future $150 successors) in efficiency and energy, they find yourself tapping right into a double-digit proportion of the client-graphics TAM, and that spells bother for Santa Clara and Markham.
The Xe DG1 is backed by Intel’s strong software program stack, which has seen breakneck improvement and feature-additions in latest instances, similar to a contemporary Control Center app, assist for contemporary applied sciences similar to variable-rate shading, integer scaling, and so on. Intel has, for over a decade, established a foothold within the consumer media-acceleration house with its Quick Sync video encoders, and Xe solely dials {that a} notch. The DG1 options Intel’s complete media-acceleration and display-controller feature-set. Intel can be designing Xe to be extraordinarily configurable by OEMs, to make the GPU finely-match their product’s thermal and energy targets. Responding to a selected query by us, Intel did not rule out the potential of discrete Xe graphics playing cards working in tandem with Intel iGPUs (probably beginning with “Tiger Lake”).
Xe DG1-SDV in motion (video)
Here are a few transient movies we took of the DG1-SDV alive and kicking.
Here’s the cardboard itself:
And this is the money-shot of Intel’s presentation, a “Warframe” gaming session. There have been no efficiency numbers put out, however the recreation is being rendered at 1080p, and seems playable.
Xe DG1-SDV Physical Design
The Xe DG1-SDV (software program improvement automobile) is a contraption that is extra advanced than “working prototype,” and stops in need of being a manufacturing product. It is designed to to be secure and sturdy sufficient for its target market: ISVs, particular person software program builders, and techniques engineers evaluating the factor for main {hardware} OEMs. The card has the very same bodily dimensions because the Radeon R9 Nano, and suits into any machine that has two full-height growth slots and a PCI-Express x16 interface, no further energy cables wanted. A single fan cools an aluminium fin-stack heatsink beneath. Throughout the demo, the cooler was greater than…
