Intel DG2 Xe-HPG specs leak, 512-EU part with 16 GB GDDR6 VRAM can potentially challenge NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 and AMD Radeon RX 6800

Intel recently introduced its first modern dGPU, the DG1 or Xe Max, for Tiger Lake laptops and select desktop configurations. During the previous Architecture Day event, Intel's graphics chief Raja Koduri said that the company will soon launch DG2 or Xe-HPG products aimed at mainstream gamers and content creators. While we've been hearing about Intel DG2 for quite some time now, a recent leak points to possible variants slated to launch later this year.

The info comes from several sources including @harukaze5719, @OneRaichu, and @hougetsu on Twitter. We've previously reported that Xe-HPG may feature up to 512 execution units (EUs) or 4,096 stream processors (SPs) and that Intel is exploring the possibility of scaling it up to 960 EUs as well. While we are still unsure about the 960-EU part, we are now getting to see some information about what all SKUs can be expected along with their VRAM capacities.

According to @hougetsu and @harukaze5719, who happened to decode @OneRaichu's cryptic tweet, Xe-HPG could be available in at least six variants. These include:

• 512 EUs (4096 SPs) / 256 bit-bus / 8 or 16 GB VRAM
• 384 EUs (3072 SPs) / 192 bit-bus / 6 or 12 GB VRAM
• 256 EUs (2048 SPs) / 128 bit-bus / 4 or 8 GB VRAM
• 192 EUs (1536 SPs) / 128 bit-bus / 4 GB VRAM
• 128 EUs (1024 SPs) / 64 bit-bus / 4 GB VRAM
• 96 EUs (768 SPs) / 64 bit-bus / 4 GB VRAM

The SKUs start from 96 EUs and go all the way up to 512 EUs. Intel already offers a 96-EU part with DG1, so we can expect the corresponding DG2 version to be faster with improved IPC and with GDDR6 RAM instead of LPDDR4x. The 256, 384, and 512-EU variants offer double VRAM choices as well with the highest being 16 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.

Going by available specs alone, RTX 3060 Ti/RTX 3070 levels of performance with the 512-EU variant is not improbable at the very least though the RX 6800 is also a potential competitor here in terms of available memory bandwidth.

While other details of Xe-HPG DG2 aren't yet available, we do know that the 384-EU SKU is likely to have a die area of 190 mm². According to Intel, DG2 would be made fabbed in an external foundry, which we hear will be a TSMC 6 nm node. It is not yet known how these cards would be named, but the company may follow a nomenclature similar to NVIDIA and AMD.

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