Intel to Introduce GPGPU Functions Into Westmere

ATI has a once a month cycle. Most games work with even older graphics drivers but Intel releases theirs with each game that needs fixing.

Besides that its still interesting to see that Westmere will be more than just a GMA thrown on. It seems to be more powerful and capable of GPGPU functions that is needed for a lot of things these days.

So...instead of using 32 cores wired together, they want to improve performance by doing the same work on fewer cores?

Rendering is a massivly parralell task, and the CPU is simply unsuited for that type of work. X86 in particular isn't designed for this type of programming, and will never achieve any significant gains. I suspect the opposite would be true, and the extra workload on the CPU would be more likely to decrease performance instead.

SLI/CF tests already show a CPU bottleneck exists for high end setups on non-i7 chips, so if the CPU is the weaker component, how would giving it more work increase performance? Until programmers take advantage of the extra processing units (or M$ codes windows to open threads on the least active processor...), you won't be seeing any advantage from this.

Hah. Sorry but the first one is kinda funny. The guy states that Intel claiming that its drop in compatable with a LGA1156 board is wrong. He goes on to state it doesn't have the required PWM. Its as if he knows Clarksdale...... even though no one has it.

And yet even with the second one IT STILL DOUBLES the performance as said. But of course if you put it through a tortue test using the most graphics card based games that can't even run on a mid end GPU on low easily I would expect it to seem weak.

My personal opinion, if you expect to run Crysis on a IGP then you will be sorely dissapointed. The game was meant, like Doom, to be played at its highest to be the most enjoyable. On low it looks like utter crap.

Of course, but you forget that SPs and GPUs as we know them ar not programmable beyond what they can do. LRB itself is highly programmable due to its x86 nature.

And you can hate on the idea all you want but every CPU in this day runs off of a Pentium design in some way or another.

On topic though, this has nothing to do with Larrabee. This is Westmere which will have an actual GPU on the chip.

I find it funny how a thread with interesting news gets passed by but a thread tht flames the living crap out of something goes on forever..

Guess next time I have to be negative like JDJ to get people to actually talk about it.

After the last bunch of forum heroes (where is C4PSLOCK anyway...) banging the Larrabee drum and getting egg on their faces almost immediately afterwards - well lets just say nobody is very keen to make bold predictions on intel graphics right now.

Chances are it will be pretty dire but hey who knows - maybe Larrabee was cancelled because GMA is the way forward?

Its good news IF it pans out.
Intel sorely needs to improve its IGPs, period.
Thing is, its done on faster chips, and slower ones wont show much, but better is better.
Tho it wont be better than ATIs solution, its welcome, and tho ATI has another solution waiting in the wings, its welcome, but not a great option, sorta like sitting on billions of dollars and throwing a nickle at a problem, it took them forever to do it, but its welcome.
Good news? Sorta, but Id like to see more, just like Id like to see a better cpu from AMD as well, but we have to live with what we have.
In the end, better is better, but Ill wait awhile before we see true perf in affordable lowend solutions