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pyroth309's avatar
pyroth309
Visionary
7 years ago

Intel Discrete GPU's targeting Photorealism

I've been very loosely following Intel's plan to jump into the GPU market since the rumors started flying a couple of years ago. I somehow missed the fact (Only really saw headlines) that Raja Koduri (former AMD GPU division head) is leading it up which comes with its own conflicts for me. He was the AMD head for this generation of AMD GPU's and likely shares responsibility for their failure. I still vividly remember him boasting about the performance of the Vega and it didn't come close to the hype. This article from a couple of days ago has some pretty interesting tidbits about intel's long term plans.

https://www.pcgamer.com/intel-video-teases-photorealism-and-other-discrete-gpu-goals/

Intel dropped a few hints at what it's working towards. One of those things is photorealism. Intel graphics boss Raja Koduri laid out his vision for the future, which includes "photorealistic immersive worlds" and "games with virtual worlds that are as large as this entire universe."
So I'm wondering, just how legitimate do you think the Intel GPU's will be? How many generations before they can challenge the higher end of Nvidia's SKU's? It's doubtful that they'll be able to compete with a 2080TI but maybe the middle tier cards?  I'm personally pulling for them because AMD only seems to care about the budget tiers and Nvidia has returned to their price gouging ways without any true competition.

Photorealism is the holy grail for me personally and to hear a GPU maker talking about it definitely perks my ears even though it's likely hype building rubbish. Interesting times ahead for sure. 

4 Replies

  • logotomie's avatar
    logotomie
    Expert Protege
    7 years ago
    The claims are just hyperbole marketing. The term photo-realism is just not well defined and "games with virtual worlds that are as large as this entire universe" are either already achieved or impossible depending on how you look at it.

    As for intels upcoming graphics chip, at this point i think everything from a complete failure (like Larabee was for consumer graphics, remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=XVZDH15TRro?) to a modest competition to the RTX2080TI is possible. But i am skeptical about a 2020 release ( unless developement started way before Raja joined intel) And Nvidia wont stand still and based on reports will release Ampere in 2020 (https://appuals.com/based-nvidia-ampere-architecture/)

    So i am skeptical.


  • pyroth309's avatar
    pyroth309
    Visionary
    7 years ago
    Yea I'm highly skeptical of that timeline as well which is why I added the part about Raja's past. He's got a history of hyperbole. But I'm skeptically hopeful lol. The way Raja was talking in the video makes it come across like he was there from the beginning of development but he may just be talking for his team or for future iterations and not the 2020 release. 

    Unless AMD has a major Ace up it's sleeve with their 7nm tech for enthusiast gamers, it's likely they will continue to focus on their  budget/mid tier game. I literally know noone in my gaming circle of 500+ gamers who bought a Vega card but I know several who bought 480's and 580's. It's anecdotal but a decent sample size. LIkewise, I just pulled the numbers from steam and The RX Vega is 0.16% of the market share. So it's probably a loser for AMD. I don't really look for AMD to challenge the enthusiast SKU's of Nvidia again anytime soon but I hope they do.

    As such, I agree with the article and think AMD should definitely be concerned more than Nvidia at this point. Intel has some of the brightest people on the planet working for them and they have a lot of capital at their disposal as well as the ability to manufacture it all. I think if anyone could pull it off it's them. 
  • bigmike20vt's avatar
    bigmike20vt
    Visionary
    7 years ago
    Haven't intel stolen a bunch of high level AMD folk to work on this? If so maybe they will get up to speed sooner rather than later.
    As for marketing speak I suggest just ignore it and wait and see. 
    We already have photorealism in some instances
  • pyroth309's avatar
    pyroth309
    Visionary
    7 years ago


    Haven't intel stolen a bunch of high level AMD folk to work on this? If so maybe they will get up to speed sooner rather than later.
    As for marketing speak I suggest just ignore it and wait and see. 
    We already have photorealism in some instances


    Yea, we've had some vegetation in games that were pretty close to photorealism. Crysis Mods come to mind.

    Raja was the head of AMD's Radeon Group and also Jim Keller who's a chip designer with a lot of accomplishments. I'm not sure who else they got of note. 

    I've always wondered why Raja left AMD. Perhaps he felt handicapped there and wanted to push harder against Nvidia..or perhaps he was actually fired for Vega lol. All in all, I've always liked him overall and he's got some great quotes he's dropped. My favorite being the P in PC should stand for performance.