14 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE
THEGRAPHICSWORLDin the desktop PC
arena has mostly been the domain of AMD and
Nvidia,with the latterarguably the topGPU dog.
Intel has beenproviding integratedgraphics
on its CPUs forsome years, notably with the Intel
HD graphics found in ultraportable laptop-grade
chips, but they’ve never beenable to compete
withthe performance offered by dedicated or
discretegraphics accelerators.
However,that couldall change with Intel’s
new Xe graphics. We’veknown forawhile that
Intelwas working on creating itsown dedicated
graphics tech, but aside from afew glimpses of the shroud foraproposed
graphics cardand afew crumbsofleaked information, we’ve not seenor
heard anything concretefromthe chip maker beyond its PonteVecchio
Xe-based GPUfor exascale computing.
At Intel’s Architecture DayinDecember 2019, the company officially
revealedthe name forits future graphics efforts would be called Xe.
But it was at CES 2020 in January that Intel finally took thecoversoff
its first Xe card, theDG1.
Clad in arippled silver-coloured shroud andsporting one fan, the Xe
DG1 lookslike arather compact graphics card,unlikesomeofthe longer
dual-fan cards from AMD and Nvidia. That’s because thiscard isn’t one
forconsumersorPCenthusiasts, rather it’s an SDVcard, or ‘software
development vehicle’for developers to get their
hands on and start learninghow the new Xe
graphics architecture works.
Intel showed the DG1inaction at CES, with
the cardbeing used to run themultiplayer game
Warframe at 1080p. From what we’ve heard, the
DG1 delivered playable framerates,around
frames per second, at seemingly low settings;
hardly the most impressive performance.
Intel has kepttight-lipped on the specification
of its DG1, but various rumours point towards it
having 96 ‘execution units’,which trumpsthe 64
execution units foundinthe most powerful Iris Plus integrated graphics of
Intel’s 10-nanometre Ice Lakemobile chips.
But Intelhad more up its sleeveatCES, demonstrating howXe
graphics willalso be integrated intoits Tiger Lake laptop CPUs, the
upcoming successors to the Ice Lakechips. In astage demo,Intel showed
thin andlight laptops running Tiger Lakechips partnered with discrete
DG1 graphics, with the twousing their combined execution units to power
Destiny2,which is no mean feat in an ultraportable.
Again, no specifications were revealed, leaving the true performance
of the Xe architecture open to speculation. But at least Intel has finally
shown itsdedicated graphics tech in action,hinting thatitcouldsoon
become amajor player in the graphics cardbattle.
SAYWHAT?
Intel’s Xe GPUs shake up the graphics arena
AMD’SRYZEN3000desktop processors made waves in 2019, ushering
in the chip maker’s 7-nanometre Zen2architecture to asuiteofCPUs. The
processors sawimprovements in performance efficiency,with the CPUs
deliveringaboost in the instructions perclock theycouldhandle,making
them pretty competitive with Intel’s 2019 chips.
However,AMD’s 2019laptop chips stillused
the Zen+ architecture,which was an iterative
improvement on theZen architecture butstill
remained on the 12nm process node rather than
themoreadvanced7nm node.This meant Intel
still held theedge in thelaptop chips arena, which
is why you’d have struggled to findmany
ultraportables or gaming laptops using AMD CPUs.
That’s set to change this year,asatCES 2020,
AMD showcased the Ryzen 4000-series of
laptop-grade processors,which tapintothe Zen
architecture.Furthermore,these chips also come
withTeam Red’s Radeon integrated graphics.
The chips come in two guises: an H-Seriesand aU-Series. The former
currently has two chips under its banner.The Ryzen74800Hisan
eight-core,16-thread chip running at up to 4.2GHz, with seven GPU cores
and 12MB of L2/L3 cache,while the six-core,12-threadRyzen 54600H
clocks up to 4GHz, and has sixGPU cores with 11MB of L2/L3cache.
Withathermal design power(TDP) of 45W, both chips are designed for
morepowerful laptops, such as gaming machines.
Conversely,with 15W TDPs, the U-Series of mobileRyzen
processors aredesigned forthin and lightlaptops. Topofthe line-up is
the Ryzen74800U, with its eight coresand 16
threads,aclock speedupto4.2GHz, eight Radeon
GPU cores, and 12MBofL2/L3 cache.
In the middle sitsthe six-core,12-thread Ryzen
54600U, with atop speed of 4.1GHz, seven
Radeon GPU cores and11MB of cache,while the
Ryzen34300Urounds off the rangewith its
quad-core,quad-thread configuration, aspeed of
3.7GHz,five GPU cores, and 5MB of cache.
The Ryzen74800Hoffers a5%hike in
single-thread performance and46% faster
multicore performance over the competition,
accordingtoAMD.The Ryzen74800U
supposedly offers a4%hikeinsingle-core performance and is up to a
hefty 90% faster in multithreadedperformance.
The H-Serieswill take on the likes of the Intel Core i7-9750H, while the
U-Series will takeonIntel’s IceLake 10nm processors. And with the Zen
architecture,AMD’s performance claims couldtranslateintolaptops with
AMD chips that no longer lag behindthose with Intel CPUs.
AMD aims to bring its Zen 2success to laptop chips
SAYWHAT?
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