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Intel Xe not really convincing? First Intel Xe DG1 dGPU Geekbench 5 OpenCL score sees it trailing behind six-year old laptop GPUs

The Intel Xe DG1 does not seem to offer much in terms of compute power. (Image Source: Videocardz)
The Intel Xe DG1 does not seem to offer much in terms of compute power. (Image Source: Videocardz)
A Geekbench 5 compute score of what is likely to be the Intel Xe DG1 dGPU has surfaced and the result isn't really convincing. The Xe DG1 seems to trail behind six-year old mobile GPUs in this particular benchmark. Even if we consider the fact that the software stack is still under development, it looks like it will be quite some time before Xe can be actually competitive against current entry-level offerings from NVIDIA and AMD.
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Earlier this year, Intel was sampling Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with Xe dGPUs for software optimization. While Xe will scale the entire computing spectrum right from mobile to Exascale, we do know that an Xe DG1 card with 96 execution units (EUs) is in the works. Now, we are seeing the Xe DG1's first Geekbench 5 OpenCL benchmark entry.

The Geekbench 5 listing indicates the test system being powered by an Intel Core i7-9700 CPU on a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi motherboard with 16 GB of RAM. The GPU is identified as an "Intel Gen12 Mobile Graphice Controller" with a maximum clock of 1.50 GHz and possibly, 4 GB of RAM. Xe DG1 is purported to be classified as an LP (presumably, low-performance) card or a low-end HP (high-performance) variant in the entire Xe stack. This could be the reason why it is being identified as a "Mobile Graphice Controller" in the benchmark, but that is just our speculation. 

Nevertheless, the Xe DG1 seems to have scored 12,427 points in the Geekbench 5 OpenCL test. If this particular score is anything to go by, it does indicate that Intel would have a lot of catching up to do even with current entry-level offerings from the likes of NVIDIA and AMD. A cursory glance at the Geekbench 5 OpenCL summary page shows that the Xe DG1 is only marginally better than an AMD Radeon Pro 555X. Even a six-year old GPU such as the GeForce GTX 880M seems to be ahead of the Xe DG1 by nearly 10%. This is in-line with our estimates when we reported about the Xe DG1's leaked SiSoft Sandra scores. 

That being said, we wish to reiterate that a single benchmark entry is not representative of the actual capabilities of the Xe DG1. The above comparison should be just considered an illustration at best as the software and drivers required to make it work are still under development. Also, we don't really expect Intel to go all guns blazing on their very first dGPU attempt... and neither should you. 

Purported Intel Xe DG1 Geekbench 5 OpenCL Compute score. (Source: Geekbench)
Purported Intel Xe DG1 Geekbench 5 OpenCL Compute score. (Source: Geekbench)

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 03 > Intel Xe not really convincing? First Intel Xe DG1 dGPU Geekbench 5 OpenCL score sees it trailing behind six-year old laptop GPUs
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2020-03- 5 (Update: 2020-03- 6)