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Intel Xe DG1 only meant for select Coffee Lake-S and Comet Lake-S CPU and chipset combinations, will not work with AMD processors

Intel Xe DG1 will support only select Intel CPU and chipset combinations. (Image Source: Intel)
Intel Xe DG1 will support only select Intel CPU and chipset combinations. (Image Source: Intel)
Intel's Xe DG1 dGPU will only work with select CPU and chipset combinations and will require a BIOS update in order to be recognized. Intel said that Coffee Lake-S and Comet Lake-S CPUs are supported on specific midrange and budget 300 and 400-series chipsets. This rules out any possibility of the GPU being compatible with AMD systems.

Intel announced the Iris Xe DG1 dGPU meant primarily for pre-built desktop systems with Asus and other partners offering add-in board (AiB) versions. Xe DG1, however, is not for everyone as compatibility with only certain systems is indicated, and AMD machines are a big no-no.

Intel clarified this to LegitReviews stating,

The Iris Xe discrete add-in card will be paired with 9th gen (Coffee Lake-S) and 10th gen (Comet Lake-S) Intel® Core™ desktop processors and Intel(R) B460, H410, B365, and H310C chipset-based motherboards and sold as part of pre-built systems. These motherboards require a special BIOS that supports Intel Iris Xe, so the cards won’t be compatible with other systems."

Apparently, there's only a limited set of hardware that DG1 supports as of now. This rules out not only AMD systems but also several current Intel systems including ones based on the Z490 chipset. Even the chipsets indicated above by Intel need special BIOS updates before they can recognize Xe GPU.

This shouldn't be surprising as Xe and Xe Max on laptops currently support only Tiger Lake configurations. Moreover, Xe DG1 features just 80 execution units (EUs) or 640 shaders, which does not help much with gaming. These cards are primarily aimed at low-cost multimedia machines from OEMs and are not meant to be purchased off-the-shelf.

The upcoming Xe-HPG DG2, however, should be more interesting if the rumors so far are anything to go by. We expect DG2 to offer up to 512 or even 960 EUs and support up to 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, which should make it competitive at least with current low-end to midrange NVIDIA Ampere and AMD RDNA2 offerings.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2021 01 > Intel Xe DG1 only meant for select Coffee Lake-S and Comet Lake-S CPU and chipset combinations, will not work with AMD processors
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2021-01-27 (Update: 2021-01-27)