Intel Makes With Xe Desktop GPUs

A Lot Like Xe Max, Just More Discrete

Intel’s Xe desktop GPU is arriving in select Intel powered OEM systems near you.  Their first discrete DG1 GPU is essentially the same as the Xe-LP iGPU you would find in a Tiger Lake APU, only after a successful separation agreement which didn’t leave Xe with everything it started with. That design is a major reason why the new Xe will only work on specific Intel systems, those using a B460, H410, B365, or H310C chipset.

The new discrete card doesn’t quite match the specs of the mobile Xe Max, it has 640 ALUs, 80 EUs while the Xe Max sports 768 ALUs and 96 EUs.  That does exceed Ice Lake’s 512 ALUs and 64EUs which may leave you wondering what the benefit of picking up a desktop Xe instead of the mobile version.  That reason comes from the clock speed, which is reputed to be around 1650MHz which compares very favourably to the 1350MHz of the mobile Xe Max.  The card also comes with 4GB of VRAM, while previous iGPUs and Xe Max have to share system memory. 

The various details and rumours that we have seen shows that the Xe will be a lower end card, great for inexpensive systems that would benefit from a bit of graphical horsepower for a bit of light gaming and lots of media consumption.  We won’t get an exact price as the card will not be sold on it’s own but considering the target audience you can safely assume it won’t add a lot to the sticker price of the systems it arrives in.