Intel Shows What Its Discrete Xe Graphics Cards Look Like And The Crowd Goes Wild
by
Dave Altavilla
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Saturday, March 23, 2019, 11:52 AM EDT
Chris Hook, Graphics and Visual Technologies Marketing Chief at Intel had the crowd whipped-up into a fine frenzy earlier this week in San Francisco, at an event location right across from one of the Moscone Center halls of Game Developers Conference. Hook and various company execs, including Intel CEO Bob Swan and Intel SVP, Core and Visual Computing Raja Koduri, took to the stage to talk a bit more about the company’s plans and vision to bring next generation discrete graphics products to market in 2020. Intel’s messaging and presentation was keenly focused on community. The event was entitled the Odyssey – referring to the journey Intel is inviting enthusiasts and gamers to join the company on, in bringing its forthcoming cutting-edge GPU products to market.
Along with all the fanfare and sizzle, fortunately press and media attendees were also treated to first-look renders of the cards, courtesy of designer Cristiano Siqueira. The design concept is called “Dragon Scale” and the first set of renders shown at the event are of a shorter, more entry-level GPU. The design incorporates what looks like a polished, all aluminum shroud with a single rear blower style fan.
There’s no apparent PCIe power supply on these cards above here, though we can’t quite see the rear edge of the beast, where in fact that connector could be located. In addition, a decidedly more aggressive, lighted and longer version of Intel’s next-gen graphics card has also been making the rounds, courtesy of Siqueira as well.
Here the Dragon Scale design of the Intel Xe series is much longer, with still a single squirrel cage type blower fan and also a dual-slot design. In the rear of the card, power delivery is provided by a PCIe 8-pin connector, as well as a 6-pin connector. This tips us off to a more powerful, high-end GPU type but it’s obviously pure speculation to assume power envelope or capabilities here at this point.
Designer Cristiano Siqueira And Intel Archictect Legend Jim Keller
It’s also important to note that while these are official renders for concept Intel graphics products, that they may or may not ever see the light of day in this exact form as real cards. These are indeed just early shroud and design concepts.
Intel's Chris Hook Gets The Crowd Fired-Up
Regardless, it’s clear Intel is gearing up for a fight, both from a design standpoint, with respect to its base level technologies, as we discussed with Intel’s Ari Rausch not long ago, and also on the marketing front as well. Industry veterans like Intel’s Hook know how to generate buzz, activate the masses and engage them with passionate messaging and strong out-reach. We get the feeling that last week in San Francisco the company was just getting warmed-up.
