Computex 2007: Intel to Enter Discrete Graphics Card Market in 2008

[malware]

Sources from multiple graphics card vendors have confirmed that Intel has approached them to lay down plans to enter the discrete graphics card market for desktop PCs. The new products from Intel would be positioned as direct competitors to AMD's ATI Radeon and NVIDIA's GeForce series of cards. The processor giant will aim for the mid-range market in the initial stages with pricing targeted around US$300. In order to be competitive, the cards will need to match the features of products from AMD and NVIDIA such as support for DirectX 10 and equivalent memory densities. Whether or not Intel will implement a technology to support multi-card configurations similar to SLI and Crossfire is unknown at this stage but it is a possibility as most of Intel's mid-range and high-end chipsets support multiple PCI Express slots already. Intel is scheduled to deliver a more complete roadmap and specifications in the fourth quarter of this year, with expected launch of the new products around the second quarter of 2008.

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[WarEagleAU]

Now this is an interesting turn of events. Last I read on this, in MaximumPC, they were not exactly doing a discrete graphics card, but a graphics type deal built directly into the cpu. It of course was supposed to support DX10, but it wouldnt able able to run high intensity games. It would be able to run mainstream computing tasks and do a bit more than integrated graphics and play a majority of the games out, just not at uber high settings. Indeed this is interesting to see, but I wonder if the cards will be for intel platforms only? I dont see AMD enabling an Intel card on their mobos but I could be wrong.

 

[petepete]

knew this was coming.. mother of god

 

[pt]

if amd let's nvidia gfx work on their boards, and chipsets, why shouldn't intel?
i tend more to believe that intel would block their chipsets to ait cards as soons as they have they're own cards

 

[jocksteeluk]

i feel this would be an excellent step as far as the consumer should be concerned and no doubt Intel's high end VGA debut will help lower prices as well as force hardware advancements in the personal computer market altogether.


competition is good!

 

[Benpi]

Why don't they just make 80 core processors that handle physics, sound, graphics, etc... on separate cores? PCs could be much smaller.

 

[laszlo]

is good for consumers-us but now when the prices are going down is always there the question:when should i upgrade? i was expecting big price falls after the hd2900 launch but some of us had to wait;it was better if Intel launch this year but untill a high-end card will be 200 euro.... i'll wait or i burn my old card and rma... (btw does anybody know if i stop the fan with atitool and oc the card .. burn it .. can i rma without problems? can they prove something?) or i get

 

[xylomn]

in my opinion this is a good thing...

if intel is able to come up with something that is on par with ati/amd and nvidias offerings it should help to finally bring down the extortionate prices graphics cards are at atm.

yay for competition

 

[anticlutch]

Jeez... it seems like AMD can't catch a break. I can't wait to see what Intel's nomenclature will be like..

 

[PyroInc]

thank god!! hopefully this will push nvida and ati to lower their dam prices and add some more competition to the field.

 

[hat]

Or Intel will just close thier chipsets to ATi and nVidia both and be forced to use Intel GFX...

 

[pt]

Or Intel will just close thier chipsets to ATi and nVidia both and be forced to use Intel GFX...

unless they have the best gfx on the world, they would be shotting themselves

 

[ex_reven]

Now this is an interesting turn of events. Last I read on this, in MaximumPC, they were not exactly doing a discrete graphics card, but a graphics type deal built directly into the cpu.

Whats the point of that though?
To my knowledge, CPUs are made up of millions of transistors which is why we have all that "65nm" regarding how close the electrical circuits are to each other.
Wouldnt that sort of graphics waste much needed space on the CPU?

Integrated graphics on the mobo is good enough to negate the need for this. You know what would be more random than Intel joining the market? Microsoft in the video card market