Intel DG1 GPU incompatible with the AMD Ryzen platform and high-end Intel mobos

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/27/2021 10:19 PM | source: legitreviews | 30 comment(s)

Yesterday we posted a news item in which Intel announced the Iris Xe, 10nm DG1 GPU with its 640 Shader Units. The cards are OEM-based and end up in pre-built systems. New information indicated that these Xe cards would not be compatible with AMD's Ryzen platform.

Not just that, the colleagues from Legit Reviews learned from Intel that the Iris Xe graphics card could only be used with 9th and 10th generation desktop processors (that would be Coffee Lake-S and Comet Lake-S). To be able to be compatible with the DG1 GPU, the motherboards need a special bios as well.

Only motherboards based on B460, H410, B365, or H310C chipset will be provided with this bios update, which means not even the Z series would be compatible. It is unclear whether Intel wants to support more platforms in the future; we assume they will.

Also, yesterday's news indicated Colorful to be a Xe AIB partner; that news is incorrect. Colorful posted a statement on Facebook, stating that the Chinese manufacturer is not involved in producing the DG1 video cards. It looks like Intel made a mistake on its website. The photo of the model with the blue accent literally mentioned Colorful in the URL on the Intel website, quite bizarre.

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schmidtbag
Senior Member

Posts: 6083
Joined: 2012-11-10

#5882131 Posted on: 01/28/2021 05:57 PM

I think Intel is better off delaying than releasing something mediocre with so many restrictions. This isn't helping their image.

It makes sense why Intel would release this first though - if their first GPU was the best they had to offer, it would be an assured disappointment, because there wouldn't be enough bug fixes and driver optimizations. First impressions matter. A lot of such things can't really happen until they get enough bug reports in.

So yeah, this product is practically dead-before-arrival, and I'm pretty sure they're not stupid enough to realize this.

Celcius
Senior Member

Posts: 375
Joined: 2018-06-21

#5882155 Posted on: 01/28/2021 06:31 PM

I think this is how they solved it.
Is not that there is something to solve here, they decided it can run just on restricted OEM partners.
The reason behind it probably purely commercial and not technical

I believe this is *precisely* what is happening here.

This was very obviously not a case of, "Hey, boss! You know that video card we've been working on? Guess what? It only works with certain chipsets. Good thing all of them are ours! Let's go eat." This is clearly by design.

I believe these are intended as the graphic cards for upcoming Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, etc. "gaming" pre-builts, which will presumably free these OEMs of the turmoil of the graphic card market, as they'll be for their exclusive use. At least, that is what I'm guessing is the plan. Namely, a fixed bill-of-materials along with a "locked-in" reliable source for the GPU, the PCB+components, and graphics memory.

However, another shoe, or two, has to drop; which fab is manufacturing the chip on a long-term, production basis, and who is manufacturing the balance of the card?

cucaulay malkin
Senior Member

Posts: 2575
Joined: 2020-08-03

#5882156 Posted on: 01/28/2021 06:35 PM

hard to explain this
are they moving the igpu to a dedicated card ?
what is the real point of a 640 shader gpu with lpddr4 ?
and why ? an apu would be better

I believe this is *precisely* what is happening here.

This was very obviously not a case of, "Hey, boss! You know that video card we've been working on? Guess what? It only works with certain chipsets. Good thing all of them are ours! Let's go eat." This is clearly by design.

I believe these are intended as the graphic cards for upcoming Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, etc. "gaming" pre-builts, which will presumably free these OEMs of the turmoil of the graphic card market, as they'll be for their exclusive use. At least, that is what I'm guessing is the plan. Namely, a fixed bill-of-materials along with a "locked-in" reliable source for the GPU, the PCB+components, and graphics memory.

However, another shoe, or two, has to drop; which fab is manufacturing the chip on a long-term, production basis, and who is manufacturing the balance of the card?

that would be a very good explenation
but this can't play pc games
that gpu could be enough for a handheld,maybe

Astyanax
Senior Member

Posts: 11370
Joined: 2018-03-21

#5882247 Posted on: 01/28/2021 11:01 PM

absolutely standard oem practice.

you'd be surprised how many oems lock their hardware down to working with only their oem configuration.

bipman
Junior Member

Posts: 15
Joined: 2015-12-20

#5882261 Posted on: 01/28/2021 11:35 PM

It's a joke.But not the funny one.

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