Intel has announced that it will introduce its very own discrete GPU in 2020, making it the first proper graphics card the company has released since 1998 with its i740 AGP card. Although we don't have much in the way of details on the new card, with some of the AMD-alumni on its team, Intel could be putting together something rather special.
Although Intel did once make graphics cards, its efforts over the past 20 years have been focused on onboard GPUs. Traditionally its HD-series of GPUs and more recently its Iris Pro series, have made it so that anyone running a decent Intel chip has been able to do some basic gaming on them. They don't hold a candle to full-size graphics cards or even dedicated graphics chips from AMD and Nvidia, but they're serviceable.
With Intel's planned 2020 GPU though, we could be looking at something that's much more competitive with the red and green team, which could change up the industry dynamic that has gone back and forth since the late 90s.
Intel's first discrete GPU coming in 2020: https://t.co/s9EPeFifBp pic.twitter.com/n5zmUY2Mc2
— Intel News (@intelnews) June 12, 2018
Although that may seem far-fetched, what has people excited about Intel's development is who's been behind it. Intel famously hired on long-standing AMD Radeon Technologies Group head, Roger Koduri in late-2017. He was responsible for AMD's rollout of the Vega graphics line, so he has some very real, recent developmental experience which could be brought to bear.
Intel also took on the services of Chris Hook a little more recently. Hook was an AMD employee too, who had been with the company's graphics division since it was ATI, well before AMD's purchase.
Considering 2020 isn't that long away though, you have to wonder how far along Intel's development was before these two came on board. Clearly it's confident in what it has planned, so color us excited to see what comes of it.
