In a recent development, we have received news that Mesa, the open-source Open GL and Vulkan driver, recently had a commit submitted. This means that Intel has a slimmed-down silicon version called DG2-448 in its foray.
This model has previously been seen to “verify pixel pipeline optimizations introduced to the driver.” however, the recent patch in the talks, which is published by Francisco Jerez, a member of Intel’s Open-Source Driver Team, also came with the description which confirms the existence of a 448 EU version of the full-fat 512 EU DG2.
Whether it will see the light of day as a commercialized product, however, is anyone’s guess.
Five months ago, Twitter user APISAK discovered the slimmed-down DG2-512 GPU from Intel.
RX 6700 XT 100%
— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) June 18, 2021
RTX 3070 97%
448EU @ 1.8 GHz 92%⬅️
———————————-
128EU @ 1.9 GHz 100%⬅️
GTX 1650 88% pic.twitter.com/giPGE8JtBJ
Can see that the GPU offers the same level of performance as the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. However, the Twitter user did not disclose the specific benchmark used to compare the two.
The Intel DG2-512 GPU should measure about 396mm2, making it bigger than the AMD RDNA 2 and NVIDIA Ampere offerings. The Xe-HPG architecture-based chip might be the flagship, but in terms of performance, it should be competing against the RTX 3080 and Radeon RX 6800 XT. It’s not as big as the flagship GPU offerings from either company, but if we are to compare the high-end GPU category (Navi 22 / GA104), the DG2-512 is slightly bigger.
Intel will launch its new Intel Arc Alchemist series during 2022’s first quarter; however, since this will be Intel’s latest series, there is less solid information available in the market to make a full probability from.
The DG2-512 GPU will come in the BGA-2660 package, which measures 37.5mm x 43mm. NVIDIA’s Ampere GA104 measures 392mm2 which means that the DG2 chip is comparable in size, while the Navi 22 GPU measures 336mm2 or around 60mm2 less. This isn’t the final die size of the chip, but it should be very close. NVIDIA packs in tensor cores and much bigger RT/FP32 cores in its chips, while AMD RDNA 2 chips pack a single ray accelerator unit per CU and Infinity Cache.
If Intel did intend to release a DG2-384 EU, then we will hear about it soon in the first half of 2021; however, if Intel cancelled the 384 EU model, then it is speculated that they would “try to sell partially disabled chips as lower-end models.”
For more information, stay tuned.
