Alleged Intel Xe HPG Desktop Engineering Sample Appears For The First Time

By now, we’ve heard several rumours and seen several snippets of Intel’s Xe HPG GPU, but never the desktop graphics card form factor that several of us have been hoping to see. That is, until today.

YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead recently published a video on his channel, along with images of what is apparently an engineering sample of the chipmaker’s upcoming Xe-HPG desktop graphics card. According to the YouTuber, the dual-fan cooling solution being shown is just one of three cooler designs that Intel has in store for the lineup.

Moore’s Law is Dead’s video also provides some details about the Xe-HPG, although it’s not information we haven’t heard before; the GPU is expected to have 16GB GDDR6 graphics memory, along with a 256-bit memory bus and TDP of 275W. On the subject of power, the video also shows an image of the card’s PCIe power ports, which are 8-pin and 6-pin. Lastly, the card will also feature 512 Execution Units (EU) and boost clocks of 2.2GHz.

If you’re wondering what all those details equate to in terms of performance metrics for the alleged Xe-HPG, Moore’s Law is Dead says that it should be somewhere between an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3080. Oh, and they also mention that Intel actually has an AI-powered super sampling technology similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS, known as XeSS.

As for the availability, the YouTuber says that at this rate, a launch this year is beginning to look very unlikely, with a 2022 availability now looking far likely. Naturally, this is all merely rumours, so take this with a grain of salt.

Intel Xe HPG Performance Supposedly On Par With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Intel has been keeping the lid tightly shut on all matters Xe related. The last time we heard anything about the chipmaker’s first discrete GPU was back in February, when Raja Koduri, its Chief Architect for Graphics, hinted at the Xe-HPG capabilities and its support for DirectX 12 Ultimate.

Fast forward to today and word on the wire is that we could be looking at a discrete GPU with performance on par with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070, if his recent tweet is anything to go by. Breaking it down, Koduri’s tweet shows two pictures from different time periods at Intel’s Folsom Lab. The takeaway here is the last bit of his tweet, where he proclaims that he is playing with a GPU that is approximately “20x faster” than a pre-production Crystal Well.

For those unfamiliar with that name, Crystal Well is what we know now as Intel’s Haswell CPU lineup; back then, the lineup’s integrated graphics was known as the Iris Pro 5200, which in turn was a part of the top-of-the-line CPU at the time, the Core i7-4770K.

While it may seem like Koduri is merely making a passing remark about Xe-HPG, there is actually some truth behind it. Thanks to PC World, we know that the Iris Pro 5200 had a UL Fire Strike’s graphics score of 1450 points. Multiply that by 20, and the number you’re looking at is 29000 points; that’s more or less on the level of the aforementioned RTX 3070.

That said, Koduri’s tweet is still, nevertheless, cryptic, and much of what we’ve talked about is still unconfirmed and mere speculation of what we can expect from Intel’s Xe HPG. So, until an official announcement by Intel, take this news with a large grain of salt.