Intel plans to discuss their 11th Generation GPU architecture “In-Depth” at GDC 2019

Intel has been working hard on getting into the GPU game for the past number of years, preparing to deliver a 2x increase in per clock performance with their upcoming 11th generation of integrated graphics processors. 

This new series of iGPUs will be released in 2019, and Intel hopes that game developers will start designing their products with Intel graphics in mind. At GDC 2019, Intel’s Michael Apodaca will lead a session where he will take an in-depth look at the company’s new graphics architecture, explaining the “innovative features” and the new “building blocks” of their 11th generation technology. At GDC we will learn how these changes will impact Intel’s gaming performance, giving us a glance of what is coming from Chipzilla’s GPU division. 

Intel’s Gen11 graphics solutions will be built using the company’s 10nm manufacturing process and will ship inside Intel’s 10nm processors in 2019, delivering a 2x improvement in performance per clock over their current Gen9 offerings. Intel’s Gen10 will be skipped, likely due to the long-term delays of 10nm and Intel’s Cannon Lake processors. If Gen11 is ready, why would Intel even consider shipping Gen10?  

Not only will performance per clock improved, but Intel’s Gen11 graphics processors will also feature up to 64 execution units, which represents a huge increase over the 24 units offered with today’s Gen9 (Skylake) and Gen9.5 (Kaby Lake/Coffee Lake) processors. Gen 11 graphics cards will provide over 1 TFLOP of GPU compute performance, which is a first for an Intel mobile GPU. For context, the AMD-powered Xbox One console offers 1.4TFLOPs of GPU compute performance, though at this time it is unknown how well Intel iGPUs will compare to AMD’s offerings in gaming workloads. 

Gen11 integrated graphics units will also feature a larger L3 cache (3MB), offering an almost 4x boost in capacity, support upgraded encode/decode capabilities, support Coarse Pixel Shading (which seems similar to Nvidia’s Variable Rate Shading), as well as the ability to handle HDR tone mapping natively and VESA adaptive sync.