Yesterday we told you that the scenario chosen by Intel for the definitive launch of its dedicated Intel Xe DG2 graphics cards would be CES 2022, and that they would arrive with at least 5 startup versions with 96, 128, 256, 384 and 512 EUs, for what the model that has been leaked today is the second starting from the bottom, that is, we are talking about a low-end graphic, or input range as they are called now.
Low-end Intel Xe GPU performs like a Radeon RX 550
As you can see in the screenshot that we have placed above these lines, the graph model used to obtain this result in the database of GeekBench It leaves no room for doubt and, as we have said before, it is the model with 128 execution units, the second from the bottom in terms of theoretical performance; the novelty here is that it has appeared running at a speed of 2,200 MHz, quite high for a GPU that is still in the tuning phase.
With all this, the performance in OpenCL of this low-end Intel Xe GPU is 13,710 points, a score that is quite similar to that obtained by the input graphics AMD Radeon RX 550 whose price is usually around 120 euros, so it fits quite well with this entry range that we are talking about. However, we must also bear in mind that we are talking about engineering samples or preliminary samples of Intel graphics that are still in the tuning phase, so when the product is launched on the market in January next year it is quite likely that we see much better performance figures.
On the other hand, we must also bear in mind that although for us as users it is obvious that if Intel enters the graphics card market it is to compete against AMD and NVIDIA, it is not really Intel’s intention at the moment. The first Intel Xe architecture GPUs are supposed to use lithography at 6 nm from TSMC (and therefore it is ruled out that they use the 5 nm node that was rumored), a process that is not cutting edge enough -in theory- to compete against AMD RDNA 3 Y Ada Lovelace of NVIDIA.
Who will Intel GPUs be released to then?
As mentioned before, Intel will have several models of its Xe architecture GPUs with varying degrees of performance; Initially and according to rumors, the semiconductor giant’s dedicated graphics will only be presented on OEM PCs from manufacturers and will not be sold separately (although this could obviously change, although it is true that it will depend largely on the state of the shortage chip).
All in all, according to the latest rumors the most powerful Intel graphics, which will have 512 EUs and if it works at 2.2 GHz with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM memory With 256-bit bandwidth, it could go head-to-head with the NVIDIA RTX 3070s or so without dedicated hardware for ray tracing. With this level of theoretical performance and if they are launched at a competitive price, Intel could compete without problems in the mid-range and even medium-high with NVIDIA and AMD even if that is not its intention.
There is less and less for Computex 2022, which will be the scenario in which Intel will finally present its graphics cards, so there is not much time left for us to get out of doubt once and for all.
