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Intel's 'Larrabee' on Par With GeForce GTX 285

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Traveling to Taiwan for Computex usually yields a lot of components, future launches, and lots of random hardware.

This time however, we waned to find out a little bit more about what Intel had up its sleeve for Larrabee--the company's next generation graphics solution, that's suppose to blow the water out of everything in the market.

According to one close Intel partner that wished not to be named, this isn't the case. We were told that Larrabee is currently only capable of performance levels similar to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 285. While this isn't a bad thing in by any measure, it doesn't quite line up with a lot of the heat that we've been told.

The partner said that with current Larrabee silicon, things may change down the line, but it did not expect Intel's graphics solution to take the high-end of the market. At the time of Larrabee's release, both AMD/ATI and Nvidia will introduce newer and faster versions of its GPUs. Despite this, it's still important to keep in mind that Intel has always been an enabler of technology, pushing other industry leaders to adopt new technology. This was the case with Intel's infamous i740.

Intel told us several weeks ago that Larrabee would be taking the same approach as Intel's SSD drives. Silent. No frills. But market dominating when released.

At this point, we still think it's a bit too early to draw very solid conclusions, but, this is what we were told.

46 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Tindytim 02 June 2009 19:11
    Considering the general concept behind the Larrabee, if it's performing on the same level as the GTX 285, on whatever testing was performed to get that number, I'm excited.
    Reply
  • Tindytim 02 June 2009 19:26
    nelson_nelI'm usually not that excited to give a single company more expansion of it's already titan market share, but that's just me.Who, Intel? I didn't know they had a large percentage of the Discrete graphics market share.

    I don't remember anytime this decade I read about the lastest Intel card.

    nelson_nelIt's worth while to take a wait-and-see approach, but I doubt I'll jump on this band wagon.Excitement and blind faith are two different things. Obviously, it could turn out to be crap, but it interests me at this point.
    Reply
  • stray_gator 02 June 2009 19:37
    so current larrabee won't break performance records.
    still, if it will be considerably cheaper / cooler / less power-hungry / better scaling, well, it might still be something to get excited about. even if only a little.
    Reply
  • 02 June 2009 19:47
    Okay seriously, the same performance as the gtx285, now that has to be seen to be beleived, and if it is the case, then intel have really made significant headroom in the Graphics R&D department and with sustained developement can become competitive, but I still take this with a pinch of salt!
    Reply
  • seboj 02 June 2009 19:55
    TindytimWho, Intel? I didn't know they had a large percentage of the Discrete graphics market share.I don't remember anytime this decade I read about the lastest Intel card.
    Discrete? No. Last I checked, however, Intel did have almost 50% overall graphics chip market share, due to their cheap integrated solutions and the rise of netbooks.

    Anyways, I'm excited for Larrabee, if for nothing else than to provide some more competition to cause nvidia/AMD to create even better cards.
    Reply
  • SirCrono 02 June 2009 19:56
    My biggest hope for Larrabee is almost linear scaling in multi "gpu" scenarios, I mean, i really sucks when you pay 2 times the money for a sli or crossfire setup and you get just 1.2 or 1.5 times the performance (sometimes even worse).

    Also, if Larrabee it's at leat mildly successful (specially in the power consumption and size areas) it might push Nvidia and ATI to deliver a better (in the "more innovative" way) product.

    In conclusion, high hopes here, in many areas too.
    Reply
  • Tindytim 02 June 2009 19:59
    sebojDiscrete? No. Last I checked, however, Intel did have almost 50% overall graphics chip market share, due to their cheap integrated solutions and the rise of netbooks.I know that, my point was, no one buys intel graphics solutions. OEMs buy them. And they're only meant for the most basic of tasks. Intel doesn't hold any of the market for people that work with graphics.
    Reply
  • gkay09 02 June 2009 20:04
    As the article says, it will have a tough time competing with the high-end market, but if the pricing is right, then it should be a very good competition like the ATI cards now...
    Reply
  • TheMan1214 02 June 2009 20:12
    I still take this with a a lot of skepticism, but it wouldn't surprise me if Intel did some good stuff to push nvidia and ati at the very least.

    And maybe if they do good things with heat,power,etc it might be worth checking out.go figure i don't like buying multiple cards for my comp
    Reply
  • seboj 02 June 2009 21:04
    It'll be a win for Intel if they can provide a similar card that's either cheaper, more efficient, or cooler, as it will gain them contracts - And any contract taken away from AMD / Nvidia is a win for Intel.
    Reply