Intel introduces a new dedicated graphics card called Iris Xe MAX. More than two decades have passed since Intel launched the Intel740. That was the last dedicated graphics from the company. They have had attempts like Larrabee and its Xeon Phi. None of those products or technologies came to an end.
Today, Intel is making a comeback in the world of dedicated graphics cards and they are doing it so with Intel Iris Xe MAX. They are focused on lightweight laptops, nonetheless, it is an interesting step considering that the scene is dominated by AMD and Nvidia.
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They are using Intel Xe architecture on these chips, we have already seen this technology in some laptops recently.
These chips will have up to 96 execution units running at 1.65GHz (compared to 1.35 GHz for embedded chips), will support Variable Rate Shading, and will also take advantage of the new PCIe 4.0 interface that Intel is already using in its latest processors. The graphics will have 4GB LPDDR4x graphics memory with up to 68GB/s bandwidth.
In addition to the graphic improvements, Deep Link technology is integrated, which according to Intel helps content creators to take advantage of the processing benefits in the field of artificial intelligence to apply it to their work. Applications such as Handbrake or Adobe Lightroom will be able to take advantage of this.
The firm also points out that with Iris Xe MAX graphics it is possible to multiply the performance in content creation in which AI algorithms can help. Intel will offer an API for this purpose.
The new Intel Iris Xe MAX graphics card will also perform promisingly in games according to internal tests. When compared to the Nvidia Geforce MX350 dedicated graphics, we find slightly higher performances. The first computers with these dedicated graphic cards will be the Acer Swift 3x, the Asus VivoBook Flip TP470 and the Dell Inspiron 7000 2 in 1.
In addition, Intel claims that in the first half of 2021 they will have the first dedicated Xe-LP graphics for high-end products. This year they will begin to sell a server GPU based on that variant Xe-LP, while the Xe-HP and Xe-HPG versions will appear in 2021.
