We might start seeing Intel’s Xe graphics cards in the summer of 2020. At least, that’s what Raja Koduri, Intel chief architect, was hinting at in his tweet on October 3.
The reigning processor (CPU) manufacturer is entering the discrete graphics cards market with its forthcoming Intel Xe cards, and for the first wave of these Xe graphics cards, it’s already committed to a 2020 schedule.
Raja Koduri’s tweet, which Tom’s Hardware reported on, is a photo of what we’re assuming is the rear of his Tesla Model S bearing a custom license plate with the words ‘THINKXE,’ ‘June’ and 2020’ on it. And, it seems to confirm Intel’s target date.
Intel is no stranger to cryptic messages such as this, having teased the Coffee Lake chips’ release date with a coffee cup bearing the word ‘October’ and the numbers ‘10’ and ‘2017’ a couple of years back. Seeing as this photo came straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, we’re going to take it as gospel.
However, whether or not it’s the date for the unveiling or the release itself, we have no idea. We’re betting on a release, but since Computex is a June affair, it might be that the manufacturer will announce it at the event and release it a few days later.
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- Intel Xe graphics to take strain off Tiger Lake CPUs with Display State Buffer (DSB)
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A third contender in the GPU race
Just when AMD has finally caught up to Nvidia in the graphics cards game, Intel is throwing its chips – or rather, graphics cards – in the pot, which could only mean good things for us.
These Intel Xe graphics cards, which will be based on the Gen 12 graphics architecture, will come in two variants – one for consumers and the other for the data center. They will also be comprised of everything from entry-level mobile graphics to gaming GPUs to general purpose GPUs for exascale supercomputers.
How Intel’s cards will measure up against their AMD and Nvidia rivals, we’ll have to wait and see. But, with Raja Koduri himself sharing weirdly specific, albeit enigmatic, information regarding the cards, we’re sure we’ll start seeing leaks churning through the rumor mill in the next few months leading up to June 2020.
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