[The Exiled]

Exclusive: Is Intel’s Arctic Sound already dead?

Intel had already announced the Xe (a.k.a. Gen12) graphics architecture in 2020, and step by step it was also concretized. The portfolio here ranges from integrated ultrabook chips and dedicated cards to genuine workstation and server cards. The one I want to show you today is factually currently at the top end of Intel’s graphics food chain. Intel uses Gen12P5 (Xe HP) ) for Arctic Sound instead of Xe LP as with the DG1. The upcoming DG2 cards, on the other hand, are more likely to resemble Ponte Vecchio (Gen12P71, Xe HPC). With Ponte Vecchio there is namely another Xe-HP version, which offers even more performance than Arctic Sound, is already manufactured in 7nm, consists of eight tiles and is supposed to be suitable for supercomputers.

The really interesting thing about the whole story about Arctic Sound is that they had written about freely scalable variants in advance and this was communicated accordingly. The portfolio, which was already rumored in 2020, included several dedicated cards with a power consumption of 75 watts (without additional, external power supply) up to models with 500 watts, which should then even be supplied by 48 volts instead of 12 volts. This flexible gradation was to be achieved by expansion stages with one, two or four tiles, i.e. coupled individual graphics processors analogous to the chiplets on AMD Ryzen CPUs. But what Intel has now concretized is limited to a total of only two models, if one can believe the internal documents, and also deviates somewhat from the structure presented at the beginning.

But it really does seem by now that Intel has already internally given up on Arctic Sound, at least in its broad variability. Neither card exploits the full potential and comes across as a compromise that has become necessary, but not as a euphorically brandished spearhead that testifies to a new self-confidence. This is a rather modest concession and the obvious realization that they probably wanted more at the beginning than they could then manage in reality. Because the announced 3T or 4T cards are completely missing from the current list. Whether all this is suitable to secure Raja Koduri’s position in the Intel universe in the long run and to establish an unbreakable friendship with Pat Gelsinger, can at least be marked with a big question mark. Xe started with great praise and it will probably be very difficult, at least in some areas, to fully meet their own expectations and not crash land.

Izvor: Igor's Lab