Intel developer graphics card prototype, DG1 SDV, disassembled and examined

Although Intel introduced the Xe DG1 Software Development Vehicle - a prototype graphics card for software developers - over a year ago, it is only now that we can see how this graphics card performs in real life. It is important to note that the DG1 SDV is not the Iris Xe desktop accelerator that the company announced a few days ago.

Although both cards are based on the same graphics processing unit (DG1), the former was not intended for consumers or even manufacturers. SDV stands for "software development platform" - it is a video card for optimizing games and programs for the future Intel graphics card - at that time, there were no discrete Xe accelerators even in a mobile format.

Since then, Intel has released Iris Xe Max (DG1-based discrete graphics for laptops) and announced the Iris Xe graphics card for OEMs. Intel has already released drivers that support the new GPUs, but right now, by far the hardest part is finding affordable products equipped with those GPUs.

The 10nm Intel DG1 chip is based on the Xe-LP architecture. The DG1 SDV accelerator has 96 execution units (CU), 8 GB of LPDDR4 video memory with a frequency of 2133 MHz. This is more than the Iris Xe desktop graphics card, which only has 80 workings CUs and 4GB of video memory.

The DG1 SDV consumes only 4W in standby mode, and the maximum power consumption under load reaches 30W. The chip itself consumes about 20 W - the rest falls on other components of the video card, which is powered exclusively from the PCIe slot. On average, the GPU clock speed reaches 1550 MHz, which is 100 MHz less than the mobile version of the Iris Xe Max in Boost mode.

When it comes to performance, things are complicated. The card can be tested only on a special Intel platform prepared for the new card - which is logical, given the company's lack of plans to make the DG1 SDV accelerator available to consumers. What this platform is, the informant did not say. The approximate performance of the DG1 SDV should be at the level of the GeForce GT 1030, but the video card did not work properly with games and with popular benchmarks, so it is extremely difficult to evaluate it.

Source: VideoCardz