Intel Reportedly Designing Arctic Sound Discrete GPU For Gaming, Pro Graphics (hothardware.com)

MojoKid shares a report from HotHardware: When AMD's former graphics boss Raja Koduri landed at Intel after taking a much-earned hiatus from the company, it was seen as a major coup for the Santa Clara chip outfit, one that seemed to signal that Intel might be targeting to compete in the discrete graphics card market. While nothing has been announced in that regard, some analysts are claiming that there will indeed be a gaming variant of Intel's upcoming discrete "Arctic Sound" GPU. According to reports, Intel originally planned to build Arctic Sound graphics chips mainly for video streaming chores and data center activities. However, claims are surfacing that the company has since decided to build out a gaming variant at the behest of Koduri, who wants to "enter the market with a bang." Certainly a gaming GPU that could compete with AMD and NVIDIA would accomplish that goal. Reportedly, Intel could pull together two different version of Arctic Sound. One would be an integrated chip package, like the Core i7-8809G (Kaby Lake-G) but with Intel's own discrete graphics, as well as a standalone chip that will end up in a traditional graphics cards. Likely both of those will have variants designed for gaming, just as AMD and NVIDIA build GPUs for professional use and gaming as well.

Comments

How many attempts are this now?

[klingens]

Is it the third or are there even more failed attempts?
Intel 740, Larrabee and now this. Even if they are successful and finally get a miracle where they produce hardware that is actually good enough. They won't beat nvidia or AMD unless they use their fab tech to build a much bigger, much more expensive to fab chip. But let's just say they pull the miracle rabbit out of the hat. Their drivers will still suck for games. To be able to get a foot in this market you will need several years/generations with competitive hardware so game engines are written with explicit thought for you, games do tests and fixes on your hardware, a driver team works with game makers for a long time,etc. I just don't see the Intel videocard driver team being capable this way.

The only chance Intel maybe has is to convince the console makers to use theirs instead of AMD for the next consoles. With enough money/rebates and the great Intel sales magic to OEMs this might even work. But for discrete PC gaming this is all DOA. I just don't see how Intel can make money on this, not with the rebates they would have to give the console makers to actually "succeed". This sounds like another Atom/mobile CPU/ARM competitor fiasco where they burn billions.

Almost perfect timing

[goombah99]

Normally it would be hard to crack this market but five stars are aligning right now that are going to make this easy.
1. Crypto Currency has made NVIDIA scarce and expensive. While that probably at it's peak and will wane for bitcoin and now etherium, new emerging currencies are going to emerge for which GPUs will still matter.

2. There about to be a paradigm shift to real-time ray tracing. GPUs have just reached the critical level of performance while new standards, drivers and libraries to support them are emerging that will bring this into the next generation of games about to be written.

3. VR and augmented reality are not come and gone. Far from dead they are just resting like parrot. Well maybe not like a parrot. Vapor ware like Magic leap is about to become real ware but the problem has been insufficient performance for real time augmented graphics.

4. And I save the best market for last. Driverless cars and self flying drones depend on GPUs. that market isn't even commerical yet. time to leap.

5. But none of the above matters. Nvidia and AMD can and are expanding into all those niches and they have the market channels and cost scales to do it. Competition cant get started. Unless of course you happen to have infitely deep pockets, a known history of selling loss leaders to crush competitors, and and superior channel to mobo makers who just gulp down your chip sets already.

Intel's timing is pretty good. demand rising, shifting requirements, actual need for improved performance, and deep pockets mean they can enter the market at the top teir of performance while competing on price without the worry of market share.