What’s going on with Intel datacenter GPUs?

Details on ATS/DG2 and Ponte Vecchio emerge

Oct 6, 2021 by

Intel Xeon Phi LogoA few weeks ago, Intel talked a lot about consumer GPU branding but what is going on with their data center offerings? SemiAccurate can shed some light on the matter and tell you where Intel thinks the various parts will fit in.

As you might recall, Intel recently renamed their consumer GPU line to Arc so DG2 is now Arc Alchemist. We also told you about the fairly high volumes of this 6nm part expected in Q1 and where it lands in the performance spectrum. TLDR: It won’t set the world on fire for performance but it is going to be much better than DG1 on that front, and will be available in more volume. The DG2 server/datacenter parts remained a mystery though.

DG2’s big brother, Ponte Vecchio is a lot more focused on the datacenter with Intel starting their assault on the sector with that part. When it comes out next year it will be about a year overdue but performance should still be quite solid from the looks of things. SemiAccurate expects the cadence of GPUs on the datacenter side to be a lot more regular and reliable from here on out. Same for the consumer side come to think of it.

The big open question from here is the software stack, OneAPI. You might recall that OneAPI was first outed nearly two years ago and the ‘release’ version came out last November. While OneAPI has a lot of roots in the old Intel tools stack, it is still fairly new. By the time Ponte Vecchio, DG2, and Sapphire Rapids hit the market, OneAPI will have had ~50% more of it’s entire lifetime to mature. We expect this to have large performance and productivity impacts on the GPUs.

So with that in mind, what does Intel have cooking on the datacenter GPU side? We can shed some light on it with a few benchmarks and comparisons with more to follow in the upcoming months.

Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.

Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate