Late last week, reports began to emerge that Intel would finally be set to arrive in the world of dedicated graphics cards with the launch of their Xe-HPG (DG2) GPUs at CES 2022. Given that this is only 5 months away, it’s clearly quite an exciting proposition and, quite frankly, long overdue since all consumers have had to pick between models from either AMD or Nvidia over the last 20 or so years.
Just in case you needed some confirmation that a launch was just on the horizon, however, following a report via Videocardz, an Intel Xe-HPG DG2-128EU graphics card has just appeared on the official Geekbench leaderboard.
Intel Xe-HPG DG2-128EU Graphics Card
Now, at a cursory glance, one would presume that rather than a dedicated desktop graphics card, this Intel Xe-HPG DG2-128EU was likely either some kind of integrated design or perhaps a mobile (laptop) version. What is curious, however, is the clock speed. Rated at 2.2GHz, although this might be a reporting error (which certainly isn’t entirely unusual in early engineering samples), this is significantly higher than usually seen in those remits.
In other words, although not confirmed, this might be an actual desktop, dedicated, and dare I say, gaming-based graphics card.
Of course, and in pouring some cold water over that theory, it’s entirely possible that this is simply a mobile version that has been ‘ported’ into a desktop dedicated design. We have, after all, already seen this happen with early samples of the Intel DG1. – And in something that would seemingly confirm that possibility, we do get a look at the results which, quite frankly, are not impressive at all by any stretch of the imagination. In direct comparative terms, it offers the same kind of performance seen in an Nvidia 750 Ti or AMD RX 550. Not exactly cutting-edge cards.
What Do We Think?
Given that these results have almost certainly come from an early engineering sample, it’s entirely possible that not all of the technology within the GPU has been unlocked yet. As such, while the results may initially appear somewhat lacklustre, the final product has every possibility of being massively better than this. – The real key plus to take from this is that, with this result, we have something of a loose confirmation that desktop Intel graphics cards are indeed on the way, and with a launch rumoured to be set for CES 2022, some big things might be just on the horizon!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
