Intel Xe based Discrete GPU shown with Destiny 2

Intel yesterday also had its keynote, and as a bit of a surprise showed gameplay from Destiny 2 on its first Xe based GPU. However, there were no technical details about the DG1 chip shared.

Intel wants to get involved in the market for dedicated graphics cards and battle with AMD and Nvidia on a broad front. Recently, however, little good was heard from the Xe GPUs. The efficiency was reported to be very low compared to the competition and the driver should also take a lot of time to improve. At CES 2020, Intel responded to the negative headlines and presented the first operational Xe graphics unit, it however was a mobile part.

Intel's DG1 (Discrete Graphics 1) is not a graphics card for desktop PCs, but a dedicated graphics chip for notebooks and mobile devices. Intel Vice President Lisa M. Pearce also did not show the chip itself, but instead showed  rendered gameplay from Destiny 2. The loot shooter seems to run reasonably smoothly, but details on resolution and detail settings were not made. In addition, there is no fps display in the short video, which is why a final assessment is not possible. 

The chip has been associated with notebooks for a long time, is to be manufactured in the 10nm process, gets GDDR6 video memory and have 96 execution units (EUs). In the form of an integrated GPU (iGPU) it is referred to as "Gen12". As the iGPU, the Xe architecture will also be used on Intel's Tiger Lake CPUs, which were also presented at the keynote. Nevertheless, Intel's CES appearance leaves mixed feelings among many observers, because the breakthrough on desktop PCs is still missing, whether it is processors or graphics cards. In view of the still existing problems with the 10nm production, large leaps are hardly to be expected.