Intel Talks ARC Alchemist GPUs: TSMC 6nm Over Intel Fabs Due To Best Balance, XeSS Backwards Compatible & Partner ‘Custom’ Graphics Cards [Updated]

Update 9/21/2021: The article was updated to accomodate a retraction by Ascii.jp for an incorrect quote of Raja Koduri.

Talking to ASCII.JP, Intel executives including Raja Koduri talked about the upcoming ARC Alchemist GPU lineup and the respective graphics cards.

Intel talked a lot about its HPC and HPG graphics architectures which include Ponte Vecchio & ARC GPUs. We will start off with the details for the Intel ARC GPUs since most of the Ponte Vecchio GPU details are already known.

The first thing that's talked about is why Intel chose TSMC over its own Fabs to manufacturer ARC GPUs. The reason stated is that during the development of ARC GPUs for the gaming segment, the top priority was given to the process that offered a good manufacturing capacity.

Other characteristics such as the operating frequency and cost were also factored in & the company decided it was the best to outsource the manufacturing to TSMC as its N6 (6nm) node offered the best balance.

For the next generation, similar considerations will be taken into account again and whether we see Intel return to its own Fabs for the production of ARC Battlemage GPUs or outsource them to TSMC's on its N5 or N4 node remains to be seen.

Intel Xe-HPG ARC Alchemist GPUs To Offer More Than 32 Xe Cores?

Intel also states that its Xe-HPG architecture is very scalable. That was their response to whether the 8-slice Xe-HPG ARC Alchemist GPU shown to the press was the flagship 32 Xe-Core config so it looks like we can get a higher-end SKU sometime in the future but we know for sure that the two chips coming in Q1 2022 are going to offer 32 and 8 Xe cores, respectively.

There's no set number of maximum or minimum Xe Render slices confirmed yet but what's known is that they will depend entirely on the application, whether it be a desktop or mobility aimed SKU.

Intel ARC Already Has A Reference Graphics Card Design But Partners Open To Custom Models

Coming to an important question about the ARC Desktop graphics cards, it looks like Intel has already shipped its reference design to its partners. According to the interview, Intel is currently investigating if it's worth launching a reference-only flavor similar to NVIDIA's Founders Edition or allows partners (ODMs) to manufacturer their own custom variants. The latter seems to be what Intel is more inclining towards but we have already seen the reference design so both options are open for Intel.

We’ve painted pixels in the sky with 1,000 Intel drones. Now, that’s a visual experience. What will you create next? https://t.co/FYeygLy6Oh #IntelArc #inteldrones #inteldronelightshows #dronelightshows pic.twitter.com/c0Q4ycNYVS

— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) August 17, 2021

Intel XeSS Is Backwards Compatible With DG1 'Xe-LP' & 11th Gen CPUs

XeSS has been one of the most interesting technologies of the upcoming Xe-HPG ARC graphics lineup. We talked with Intel about XeSS in our own exclusive interview over here & Intel has now confirmed that the technology will be backward compatible with both Xe-LP-based DG1 GPUs & iGPUs on the 11th Gen Tiger Lake GPUs.

Intel also wants to leverage the workstation and content creation market with its Xe-HPG GPUs in applications such as 3DSMax where they can give NVIDIA's Quadro and AMD Radeon PRO graphics cards some tough competition. It is specifically stated that Intel's ARC GPUs can offer great graphics performance within content creation and development applications.

Intel also emphasized the driver release and how it plans to release them on regular basis and new releases every time a major title is a launch. The company has gone on a major hiring spree for its graphics division, acquiring renowned names from the industry over the last couple of weeks.

Big news here! We just added some major heavy hitters to gaming and graphics here at Intel. Join us in welcoming Ritche Corpus (@Xerious), Steve Bell, Michael Heilemann (@mheilemann), and André Bremer (@andre_bremer) to the mix! pic.twitter.com/uKta1fcXHA

— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) September 17, 2021

No Multi-GPU Solution Like Xe-Link To Be Offered on ARC Gaming Graphics Cards

There was some speculation regarding the Xe-Link technology and how it could be used to run the ARC graphics cards in multi-GPU configurations however Intel has confirmed that the tech is only made for the Xe-HPC Ponte Vecchio GPUs and won't be featured on the standard gaming lineup.

Based on the timeline, the Xe-HPG Alchemist lineup will compete against NVIDIA's Ampere & AMD RDNA 2 GPUs since both companies aren't expected to launch their next-gen parts by the very end of 2022. The Xe-HPG ARC GPUs will be coming to the mobility platform too and will be featured in Alder Lake-P notebooks.