Intel Xe-HPG DG2 with 256 EUs shows up alongside a 14-core Alder Lake SoC, initial numbers put it in the same ballpark as an NVIDIA GTX 1050

Intel will be launching the 12th gen Alder Lake hybrid CPUs later this year and also introduce the DG2 Xe-HPG GPU for gamers. To that effect, several leaks have been surfacing on the internet showing these parts in action. Now, we have another leak via Geekbench that shows a 14-core Alder Lake CPU paired with an Xe-HPG DG2 GPU with 256 execution units (EUs).

The Geekebench record in question (now taken down) indicates the DG2-256 GPU to have a frequency of 1.4 GHz with a 6.22 GB memory. While not explicit in the benchmark itself, we do see the GPU being reported as a "Gen 12 Desktop Graphics Controller". Also, the CPU in the test is a 14-core Alder Lake processor based on the FCBGA 1744 socket. This indicates that DG2-256 could be a scaled-down version of DG2-384 meant for laptops.

The Alder Lake processor is reportedly having a base clock of 797 MHz and a boost of 3,989 MHz. Alder Lake is a hybrid CPU architecture, meaning it sports a combination of slower, energy-efficient Gracemont cores and faster, more powerful Golden Cove cores. Geekbench's reading of the clocks could be influenced by this combination. Xe-HPG DG2 is expected to first launch in laptops later this year followed by desktop versions in early 2022, so it is not surprising that initial leaks primarily stem from an Alder Lake-DG2 combination.

Coming to the OpenCL bench result itself, we see that DG2-256 scores about 18,450 points, which puts it in the realm of an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050. Another Geekbench listing (also taken down) that shows an Alder Lake chip with a 96-EU Gen 12 GPU was spotted as well. This iGPU version of Xe-HPG seems to have scored 6,516 points in the OpenCL test. We have seen previous leaks of DG2-448 and DG2-512, which indicated that Intel's offerings have the potential to compete with the likes of NVIDIA Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 cards. Hopefully, this is an early sample with enough scope for performance improvement in the run up to launch.

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