Intel’s Iris Xe Discrete Desktop GPUs will only be usable motherboards/CPUs with “a special BIOS”

Yesterday, Intel launched their first discrete desktop graphics card, the Iris Xe to OEMs, finally bringing Intel into the desktop discrete graphics market. While the Iris Xe discrete graphics card may not be a Radeon RX 6000 series of RTX 30 series competitor, it is a sign of things to come from team blue. Intel has ambitions within the graphics market, and that is great news for gamers. 

Legit Reviews contacted Intel regarding their Iris Xe Discrete graphics card after it was announced, uncovering a key detail about the graphics card which prevents it from ever releasing to the standalone component market. The GPU only works with selected Intel CPUs and motherboards, and even then it requires “a special BIOS” to function. 

Unlike graphics products from AMD and Nvidia, Intel’s first discrete GPU cannot work with AMD processors and is locked into the Intel hardware ecosystem. To make things worse, only some Intel processors and chipsets can work with the graphics card, highlighting how far Intel has to go before releasing products that can truly compete with Radeon and Geforce in the gaming space. 

Below is Intel’s statement to Legit Reviews;  

 

 

     The Iris Xe discrete add-in card will be paired with 9th gen (Coffee Lake-S) and 10th gen (Comet Lake-S) Intel® Core™ desktop processors and Intel(R) B460, H410, B365, and H310C chipset-based motherboards and sold as part of pre-built systems. These motherboards require a special BIOS that supports Intel Iris Xe, so the cards won’t be compatible with other systems.