What about Intel’s GPU division? Now the roadmap is becoming more concrete
Intel’s annual investor meeting brought a lot of information about the company’s plans again this year. In addition to details on the CPU roadmap, Raja Koduri, Intel’s SVP and GM of the Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics (AXG) Group, updated investors on the current status of the GPU division. The descriptions give a pretty good view of how things are going with the first, second and third generation of Arc graphics products.
4 million units in 2022, starting with laptop GPUs
For this year, Intel is pursuing the ambitious plan to ship 4 million units/GPUs of the “Alchemist” generation between mobile, desktop and workstation. According to analysis by anandtech Intel would thus add another 10% to the total volume of currently generated by Nvidia and AMD GPUs sold. The simple explanation for this rather low volume: Intel relies on TSMC’s N6 process, but the capacities of the contract manufacturer are exhausted.
Intel Arc Roadmap: Alchemist, Battlemage, Celestial
For starters, Intel is focused on launching its mobile Arc products before the first desktop variants are to follow in the second quarter. Last but not least, Intel also hinted at workstation products, which are expected in the third quarter. This schedule also means that it will be a little longer before Intel’s GPUs can prove themselves in the high-end sector.
Top GPU planned
Last but not least, Koduri also gave a small preview of when Intel will venture into the ultra-enthusiast market. The attack on the performance peak is therefore not to be expected before 2024, when the graphics units based on the “Celestial” architecture will be available.
Before that, however, Intel will take an intermediate step with the second “Battlemage” architecture, which is expected for 2023-2024. With these GPUs, Intel is also planning to integrate them into its new “Meteor Lake CPUs” for the first time, thus finally saying goodbye to its Xe LP GPU architecture.
