Intel Xe just took a key step to replacing Nvidia and AMD graphics for “most” gamers
Intel has released its new Xe-LP graphics to developers, marking a key step in its bid to wrestle control of the GPU market from Nvidia and AMD.
The company announced the news at the CES trade show in Las Vegas today. The firm unveiled its new LP-series DG1 discrete graphics, shortly after the launch of its new Tiger Lake family of CPUs.
Though the announcement may sound small, it’s a key step in Intel’s ongoing effort to break into the creative and gaming graphics market. The firm told Trusted Reviews that it aims to replace dGPUs with Integrated graphics for “most” laptop and mobile device gamers in 2019.
The Xe-LP series is the first stage of this process, and precedes the launch of the firm’s full on desktop and data centre Xe products.
The DG-1 and Tiger Lake’s exact specs haven’t been revealed, but Intel claims they will be “another generational leap in graphics performance over Ice Lake” and offer “double digit CPU performance gains”.
Related: Best graphics cards
Today’s announcement will give developers, including the gaming variety, time to optimise their wares for the new graphics architecture. Trusted Reviews asked Intel for a breakdown of which developers are currently signed up to optimise their wares for Xe and Tiger Lake, but we were firmly fobbed off, with a spokesperson saying:
“Starting with Xe-LP enables our ISV strategy for broad enablement and optimization. This is a journey and we have plans for a complete portfolio of products based on the Xe architecture. We are not revealing ISV partnerships or features at this time. Stay tuned for additional details.”
Xe is currently split into three tiers Xe-LP, Xe-HP, and Xe-HPC, which target the integrated, enthusiast and data centre markets respectively. Intel claims the graphics architecture has been designed to be “scalable” and “modular”, so in theory any work developers and Intel do for Xe-LP should work with the other two tiers.
Intel is one of many firms to release new products at CES 2020. AMD lifted the lid on its new Ryzen 7 4800U mobile CPU and Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card at the show on Monday.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.