Intel Starts Shipping Its First Discrete Graphics Cards

PC chipmaker Intel has started shipping its first dedicated graphics chips for desktops, the company announced today. The chip has been developed with partners and is expected to be seen on devices in 2021. The company is branding it the Intel Iris Xe discrete desktop graphics card, and the first one is codenamed the DG1. Essentially, Iris Xe is to its graphics chips what ‘Core i’ is to Intel’s PC processors. The Intel Iris Xe was first announced at CES 2020 last year and companies like Acer, Asus and Dell have already been working on devices that run this chip.

Why does it matter?

While Intel had enjoyed a near monopoly in laptop and PC processors for the longest time, the company has largely been unsuccessful at making discrete graphics chips. Intel did offer integrated graphics with its processors, but discrete chips offer much better graphics capabilities and are more powerful. This market has always been dominated by Nvidia and AMD.

That said, Intel may have been pushed into a corner now. The company is facing the heat from all sides, with AMD making new PC processors that are eating into its market, while also making powerful graphics chips. Additionally, companies like Microsoft and Apple have also been moving towards mobile chipsets for laptops and PCs, which threatens Intel’s business even more. If successful, the discrete graphics chips could give Intel an additional business to make money out of.

The company currently has three different versions for these new chips. These are Xe LP, Xe HP and Xe HPC, which are meant for low performance, high performance and supercomputer type workloads, respectively. So, Intel is not only aiming the chips at low power laptops, it’s meant to be sold for devices across the board. 

Unlike Nvidia and AMD’s chips though, you won’t be able to buy these directly off the rack. It will be sold to OEMs like Asus and Dell, who will then build products on top of it. The entry level DG1 could, in theory, help companies make laptops that take on ARM-based products with full PC-compatible hardware.

For consumers, there’s always the hope that the same company making much of a product’s hardware will lead to better performance. However, that may not always be the case. More importantly, since AMD and Nvidia mostly make GPUs for more powerful machines, Intel could help the industry bring down the price of laptops that can still allow a certain level of high performance use cases, like gaming. The company had showed a demo of Destiny 2 running on these chips earlier.

Is it coming to India?

As mentioned above, the new graphics chips aren’t meant for direct sale to consumers. This means that unlike Nvidia and AMD’s graphics chips, you won’t be able to buy one off these off the shelf. However, companies like Asus will likely bring their products to India soon enough. The Intel Xe LP, which is the low power variant, seems especially suited for low cost laptops that do well for companies in India. If Asus, Dell and others make laptops running on these chips, we’ll likely see them in stores in India by the end of 2021.

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