Intel Xe

Release date	September 2, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-09-02)
Manufactured by	Intel TSMC
Designed by	Intel
Marketed by	Intel
Fabrication process	TSMCN6
Cards
Entry-level	Iris Xe Graphics
High-end	Intel Arc
History
Predecessor	Gen 11
Successor	Intel Xe 2

Intel Xe (stylized asX^e and pronounced as two separate letters,^[1] abbreviation for "exascale for everyone"^[2]), earlier known unofficially asGen12,^[3][4] is aGPUarchitecture developed byIntel.^[5]

Intel Xe includes a newinstruction set architecture. The Xe GPU family consists of a series of microarchitectures, ranging from integrated/low power (Xe-LP),^[6] to enthusiast/high performance gaming (Xe-HPG), datacenter/high performance (Xe-HP) and high performance computing (Xe-HPC).^[7][8]

Intel's first attempt at a dedicatedgraphics card was theIntel740,^[9] released in February 1998. The Intel740 was considered unsuccessful due to its performance which was lower than market expectations, causing Intel to cease development on future discrete graphics products. However, its technology lived on in theIntel Extreme Graphics lineup.^[10] Intel made another attempt with theLarrabee architecture before canceling it in 2009;^[11] this time, the technology developed was used in theXeon Phi, which was discontinued in 2020.^[12]

In April 2018, it was reported thatIntel was assembling a team to develop discretegraphics processing units, targeting bothdatacenters, as well as thePC gaming market, and therefore competitive with products from bothNvidia andAMD.^[13] Rumors supporting the claim included that the company had vacancies for over 100 graphics-related jobs, and had taken on formerRadeon Technologies Group (AMD) leaderRaja Koduri in late 2017 – the new product was reported to be codenamed "Arctic Sound".^[13] The project was reported to have initially been targeting video streaming chips for data centers, but had its scope expanded to include desktop GPUs.^[13]

In June 2018, Intel confirmed it planned to launch a discrete GPU in 2020.^[14]

The first functional discrete "Xe" GPU, codenamed "DG1", was reported as having begun testing in October 2019.^[15]

According to a report byHexus in late 2019, a discrete GPU would launch in mid 2020; combined GPU/CPU (GPGPU) products were also expected, for data center andautonomous driving applications. The product was expected to initially be built on a10 nm node (with7 nm products in 2021) and use Intel'sFoveros die stacking packaging technology (see3D die stacking).^[16] During 2020, the first GPUs were released under the name Intel Iris Xe Max, beingintegrated in the 11th generation Intel Core processors (codenamed "Tiger Lake" and "Rocket Lake"),^[4] followed in 2021 by the Iris Xe DG1 card, exclusive to IntelOEM manufacturers.^[17] Finally and after some delays, the retail launch of these first discrete graphics cards from the company in over 20 years, known as theIntel Arc series, would occur during 2022.^[18]

Intel Xe expands upon themicroarchitectural overhaul introduced inGen 11 with a full refactor of theinstruction set architecture.^[19][4] While Xe is a family of architectures, each variant has significant differences from each other as these are made with their targets in mind. The Xe GPU family consists of Xe-LP, Xe-HP, Xe-HPC, and Xe-HPG sub-architectures.

Unlike previous Intel graphics processing units which used the Execution Unit (EU) as a compute unit, Xe-HPG and Xe-HPC use the Xe-core.^[20] This is similar to an Xe-LP subslice.^[20] An Xe-core contains vector and matrixarithmetic logic units, which are referred to as vector and matrix engines. Other components include L1 cache and other hardware.^[20][21]

Xe-LP is the low power variant of the Xe architecture with removed support for FP64.^[22] Xe-LP is present as integrated graphics for 11th-generation Intel Core and the Iris Xe MAX mobile dedicated GPU (codenamed DG1),^[6] as well as in the H3C XG310 Intel Server GPU (codenamed SG1).^[4] Compared to its predecessor, Xe-LP includes new features such as Sampler Feedback,^[23] Dual Queue Support,^[24] DirectX12 View Instancing Tier2,^[25] andAV1 8-bit and 10-bit fixed-function hardware decoding.^[26]

Xe-HP is the datacenter/high performance variant of Xe, optimized forFP64 performance and multi-tile scalability.^[5]

Xe-HPC is the high performance computing variant of the Xe architecture.^[7][8] An Xe-HPC Xe-core contains 8 vector and 8 matrix engines, alongside a large 512  KB L1 cache.^[27] It powers Ponte Vecchio.

Xe-HPG is the enthusiast or high performance graphics variant of the Xe architecture. The microarchitecture is based on Xe-LP with improvements from Xe-HP and Xe-HPC.^[28] The microarchitecture is focused on graphics performance and supportshardware-accelerated ray tracing,^[7][29] DisplayPort 2.0,^[30] XeSS or supersampling based on neural networks (similar toNvidia DLSS), andDirectX 12 Ultimate.^[31] Intel confirmedASTC support has been removed from hardware starting with Alchemist and future Intel Arc GPU microarchitectures will also not support it.^[32] An Xe-HPG Xe-core contains 16 vector engines and 16 matrix engines.^[21] An Xe-HPG render slice will consist of four Xe-cores, ray tracing hardware, and other components.^[21]

The Xe-LPG architecture is a low power variant of Xe-HPG designed for thetile-basediGPUs (tGPUs) of Intel'sMeteor Lake andArrow Lake processors.It is based on the sameArc Alchemist graphics (Gen 12.7) used by Intel's Arc A-series graphics cards but is optimized for operation with lower wattage and higher performance per watt.

A successor to Xe was revealed during Intel Architecture Day 2021, under the name of Xe 2, codenamedBattlemage. In an exclusive interview with HardwareLuxx Tom Petersen confirmed that X^e2 would be segmented into "Xe2-LPG" (Low Power Graphics) forintegrated GPUs and "Xe2-HPG" (High Performance Graphics) fordiscrete GPUs.^[34] Xe 2 was first released with Xe2-LPG inLunar Lake on September 24, 2024.^[35] On December 3 2024, Intel announced theArc B-Series Graphics Cards for desktop, utilizing the Xe2-HPG architecture, which was later released on December 12 2024.^[36]

Intel Xe 3, codenamedCelestial,^[21] is the upcoming successor to the Intel Xe 2 microarchitecture.

Intel Xe 4, codenamedDruid,^[37] is the upcoming successor to the Intel Xe 3 microarchitecture.

Newer Intel processors use the Xe-LP microarchitecture. These include 11th generation Intel Core processors (codenamed "Tiger Lake" and "Rocket Lake"),^[4] 12th generation Intel Core processors (codenamed "Alder Lake"), and 13th generation Intel Core processors (codenamed "Raptor Lake").

In August 2020, Intel was reported to be shipping Xe DG1 GPUs for a possible late 2020 release, while also commenting on a DG2 GPU aimed at the enthusiast market (later found out to be the first generation of Intel Arc nicknamed "Alchemist"). The DG1 is also sold as the Iris Xe MAX and as Iris Xe Graphics (stylized asiRIS X^e) in laptops, while cards for developers are sold as the DG1 SDV.^[38][39]

The Xe MAX is an entry-level GPU that was first released on November 1, 2020, in China and is similar in most aspects to the integrated GPU found inTiger Lake processors, the only differences being a higher clock speed, slightly higher performance and dedicated memory and a dedicated TDP requirement. It competes with Nvidia's laptop-levelGeForce MX series GPUs. It is aimed at slim and highly portable productivity laptops and has 4 GB of dedicated LPDDR4X-4266 memory with a 128-bit-wide memory bus, has 96 EUs, 48 texture units, 24 ROPs, a peak clock speed of 1650 MHz and a performance of 2.46 FP32 teraFLOPs with a 25w TDP. By comparison, the integrated GPU in Tiger Lake processors has a performance of 2.1 FP32 teraFLOPs.^[40][41] The Xe MAX does not replace the system's integrated GPU; instead it was designed to work alongside it, so tasks are split between the integrated and discrete GPUs.^[42] It was initially available on only 3 laptops: The Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TP470, the Acer Swift 3X, and the Dell Inspiron 15 7000. Intel Xe MAX GPUs can only be found on systems with Tiger Lake processors.

Intel officially announced Intel Iris Xe Graphics desktop cards for OEMs and system integrators on January 26, 2021. It is aimed at mainstream desktop and business PCs as an improvement over other graphics options inAV1 video decoding, HDR (high dynamic range) video support and deep learning inference, and is not as powerful as its laptop counterpart, with only 80 enabled EUs. The first cards are made by Asus, haveDisplayPort 1.4,HDMI 2.0, Dual Link DL-DVI-D outputs and are passively cooled.^{[43][44][45][46]}

Intel Arc is a high-performance discrete graphics line optimized for gaming. This will competes with theRadeon andGeForce lines of graphics processing units. The first generation (codenamed "Alchemist"), was developed under the "DG2" name and is based on the Xe-HPG architecture. Future generations are codenamed Battlemage ("DG3", based on Xe²), Celestial ("DG4", based on Xe³), and Druid ("DG5").

On November 11, 2020 Intel launched the H3C XG310 data center GPU consisting of four DG1 GPUs with 32 GB of LPDDR4X memory on a single-slot PCIe card.^[50][51] Each GPU is connected to 8 GB of memory over a 128-bit bus and the card uses a PCIe 3.0 x16 connection to the rest of the system. The GPUs use the Xe-LP (Gen 12.1) architecture.

Intel officially announced their Xe generalHPC/AI GPU codenamedPonte Vecchio on November 17, 2019. It was revealed to use the Xe-HPC variant of the architecture^[52] and Intel's 'Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge' (EMIB) and Foveros die stacking packaging on aIntel 4 node (previously referred to as 7 nm). Intel later confirmed at Architecture Day 2021 that Ponte Vecchio would use Compute Tiles manufactured on TSMC N5, Base Tiles and Rambo Cache Tiles manufactured usingIntel 7 (previously referred to as 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) and Xe Link Tiles manufactured on the TSMC N7 process. The new GPU is expected to be used inArgonne National Laboratory's newexascale supercomputer,Aurora, with compute nodes comprising two next generationIntel Xeon (codenamed "Sapphire Rapids") CPUs, and sixPonte Vecchio GPUs.^[53][54]

Intel officially announced the successor to Ponte Vecchio, GPU codenamedRialto Bridge on May 31, 2022.^[58] On March 3, 2023 Intel announced the discontinuation of Rialto Bridge in favor of their tile-based flexible and scalable Falcon Shores XPU (CPU + GPU) set to arrive in 2025.^[59]

Under the codename Arctic Sound Intel developed data center GPUs for visual cloud and AI inference based on the Xe-HP architecture (Gen 12.5).^[60] The GPUs were supposed to be fabbed on Intel's10nm node and have a die size of around 190 mm² with 8 billion transistors.^[61] Up to four GPUs tiles could be combined into a singlepackage together withHBM2e memory.In October 2021 Raja Koduri announced that Xe-HP won't be commercialized into a final product.^[60] Instead the Arctic Sound cards will be based on the Xe-HPG architecture (Gen 12.7), the same as the Alchemist consumer graphics cards.^[62] They were launched on August 24, 2022 as the Intel Data Center GPU Flex series.On March 3, 2023 Intel announced that it would discontinue the development of Lancaster Sound which was supposed to succeed Arctic Sound in 2023 with incremental improvements. Instead Intel will accelerate the development of Melville Sound which will be a significant architectural leap in terms of performance and features.^[59]

Intel Graphics Technology (GT) is a collective name for a series of integrated graphics processors (IGP) produced by Intel,^[63][64][65] which are manufactured on the same package or die as the central processing unit (CPU).^[66] It was first introduced in 2010 as Intel HD Graphics^[67][68] and renamed in 2017 to Intel UHD Graphics.

Before the advent of Intel HD Graphics, Intel integrated graphics were embedded in the northbridge of the motherboard as part of the Intel Hub architecture.^[69] They were known as Intel Extreme Graphics and Intel GMA. Within the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) development, the northbridge was eliminated, and graphics processing was moved onto the same die as the central processing unit (CPU). The previous integrated graphics solution from Intel, Intel GMA, had a reputation for insufficient performance and functionality, and therefore was not considered a good choice for more demanding graphics applications, such as 3D gaming. The performance increase provided by Intel HD Graphics made the products competitive with integrated graphics adapters produced by its competitors, Nvidia and ATI/AMD. Intel HD Graphics, demonstrating minimal power consumption, which is important for laptops, was sufficiently powerful that PC manufacturers often discontinued offering discrete graphics options in both lower and higher-end laptop lines where reduced size and low power consumption are important. Nowadays, if a mini-PC for a home office or a portable laptop for work and light entertainment is needed, Iris Xe Graphics may be the best choice.^[70]

Intel Iris Graphics and Intel Iris Pro Graphics are series of IGP introduced in 2013^[71] with some Haswell processor models as high-performance versions of HD Graphics. Iris Pro Graphics was the first in the series to include embedded DRAM.^[72] Since 2016, Intel has called this technology Intel Iris Plus Graphics with the launch of Kaby Lake. In the fourth quarter of 2013, Intel integrated graphics accounted for 65% of all PC graphics processor shipments.^[73] However, this percentage does not reflect actual adoption, as some of those shipped devices ultimately ended up in systems with discrete graphics cards.

Intel HD and Iris Graphics are divided into generations, and within each generation into "performance tiers" designated by the "GTx" label. Each generation corresponds to an implementation of the Gen graphics microarchitecture with the corresponding GEN instruction set architecture starting from Gen4.

• Larrabee (microarchitecture)
• Intel Graphics Technology
• Arc Alchemist series

• GPGPU
• Graphics microarchitectures
• Intel microarchitectures
• Intel graphics

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