Intel's Xe-HPG GPU Shows Up in Game Requirements

(Image credit: Frictional Games’s)

In a rather surprising move, a game developer has listed Intel's yet-to-be released Xe-HPG graphics processor. One of Intel's Xe-HPG GPU is claimed to be a recommended graphics card for Amnesia: Rebirth. Whether this is a typo isn't clear — maybe the game just mean Xe Graphics in general. Still, it could be a broader attempt at marketing the Xe-HPG brand.

Frictional Games's Amnesia Rebirth is a horror adventure first-person shooter game that recommends a system based on AMD's Ryzen 5 or Intel's Core i5 processor paired with 8 GB of RAM, and a graphics card based on AMD's Radeon RX 580, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 680, or Intel's Xe-HPG GPU. Meanwhile, the minimum system requirements list a Core i3 processor with Intel's UHD Graphics 630. 

(Image credit: Frictional Games)

Intel's Xe-HPG architecture will power the company's upcoming lineup of dedicated graphics processors designed specifically for gamers. The GPUs will use select energy-efficient blocks from the Xe-LP architecture, frequency optimizations designed for Xe-HP/Xe-HPC GPUs for datacenters and supercomputers, high-performance internal interconnections, hardware-accelerated ray-tracing support, and a GDDR6-powered memory subsystem. Intel plans to make its Xe-HPG-based GPUs available sometime in 2021, and they'll hopefully be competitive against mid-range and enthusiast-grade offerings from AMD and Nvidia.

Intel announced its Xe-HPG this past August, but did not say whether it had taped out the first GPUs based on the architecture or not. Based on the ray tracing support, we assumed that hardware was not yet at that level of development. It's also unclear how many Xe-HPG graphics processors Intel plans to launch next year.

The listing of Intel's Xe-HPG GPU may indicate that Intel has either supplied the very first samples of its Xe-HPG graphics cards to a game developer, or at least started to communicate levels of performance to be expected from its new entry-level gaming GPU.

AMD's Radeon RX 580 graphics card is based on the company's Ellesemere XT/Polaris 20 XT GPU originally introduced in 2016. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 680 is the company's flagship graphics processor from 2012. By today's standards, performance of both solutions is at best mid-range, bordering on entry-level. The listing of one of Intel's Xe-HPG GPU next to rather outdated GPUs from AMD and Nvidia may indicate approximate performance level of an entry-level graphics card based on the Intel Xe-HPG architecture. Or it might simply be for the new Iris Xe Graphics that are shipping in Tiger Lake.

At this point any guesses about performance of Intel's Xe-HPG GPUs are of course speculation. The game developer could simply have listed the slowest graphics cards it had in mind. Yet, if Intel's slowest Xe-HPG GPU offers performance of AMD's Radeon RX 580 and the highest-end one is competitive with AMD's flagship 2021 offering, then Intel's Xe-HPG family will be pretty broad. 

Intel traditionally does not comment on unofficial information about performance of its upcoming GPUs.

Source: Steam (via Wccftech.com)

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • thisisaname
    Considering that the Radeon RX 580 is about 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 680 you can not in any meaningful say compare the Xe-HPG with either of them.
    It has a rather low and outdated spec, it even supports Windows 7!!
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    I wouldn't read much into those system requirements as an indicator how Intel's Xe graphics might perform, as it seems like they pulled all the recommendations out of a hat. There are large differences in the performance levels of each of the AMD/Nvidia/Intel hardware that's listed.

    They list the GTX 460, Radeon HD 5750 and HD 630 all as minimum requirements, but a GTX 460 should offer nearly double the performance of a 5750, and more than double the performance of Intel's HD 630 graphics. Meanwhile, for the recommended requirements, an RX 580 should offer up to around 50% more performance over a GTX 680, so it's very possible that the Intel Xe-HPG could fall well above or below that range as well.

    thisisaname said:
    Considering that the Radeon RX 580 is about 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 680 you can not in any meaningful say compare the Xe-HPG with either of them.
    Hah! I was just typing more or less the same thing, and the new post indicator popped up with your message before posting. I will post my same-ish response anyway. : P
    Reply
  • JayNor
    I suspect the requirements derive from support for the DirectX 12_2 ray tracing, which MSFT apparently leaked already includes for Xe-HPG.

    https://hothardware.com/news/microsoft-leaks-upcoming-gpus-dx-support
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    JayNor said:
    I suspect the requirements derive from support for the DirectX 12_2 ray tracing, which MSFT apparently leaked already includes for Xe-HPG.
    So, you expect an 8+ year old GTX 680 to meet the recommended requirements for Raytracing? >_>

    I don't think this game even currently has plans to add raytracing support.
    Reply