Intel is particularly focused on late graphics, more than we can recall in recent years. Between the launch of its first modern discrete GPU, which is yet to debut in 2020, the redesign of its Graphics Command Center, and the sharing of details on its next integrated GPU update, it is clear that the spirit of the new GPU Intel is in the right place. Many details are still locked. That said, a recent driver update may provide clues to future Intel Gen11 graphics.
Gen11 will debut later this year, complementing Intel's forthcoming Intel's 10-nanometer Sunny Cove processor architecture, which itself will form the basis for the Core (consumer) and Xeon (server) processors. A recent white paper published by Intel revealed interesting details about the Gen11 architecture. Peak flow, for example, will be 1TFLOPS and Gen11 will feature a technique called Shader Pixel Shading that could improve performance without sacrificing fidelity.
Of course, not all Gen11 GPUs will be created equal, as we expect Intel to release multiple versions or levels. This assumption is corroborated by a breakdown of Intel's latest graphics driver. People to TechPowerUp torn into the driver package and discovered more than a dozen (or baker dozen) Gen11 variants. Here's a look at them …
Source: Intel driver via TechPowerUp
Initially, Gen11 will be part of at least two processor architectures, namely Ice Lake and Lakefield. We also saw that Gen11 was implemented in Pentium Silver and Celeron low consumption systems based on Elkhart Lake.
Regarding the lists in the INF driver, there are 13 variations of Gen11 graphics indexed for Ice Lake. The most powerful of them is the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 950. This part will include the total allotment of 64 units of execution (EU) and will present the clock speeds the group, allowing a theoretical maximum flow of 1TFLOPS.
As a reference, we will most likely see Iris Plus Graphics 950 on Core i9 processors and perhaps Core i7. Below, it will be the Iris Plus Graphics 940, also with 64 EU, but probably slower.
The same goes for the Iris Plus Graphics 930 layer, although in addition to a 64 EU variant, there is a version reduced to 48 EU. We expect this to be on Core i3 processors.
Under all this is the Iris Plus Graphics 920 family. These GPUs have 32 EU and are good candidates for Pentium Gold processors.
Of course, none of this has been confirmed, but since Intel is currently transforming the Gen11 GPU architecture into driver versions, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We also have a rough idea of the performance, based on the recently disclosed benchmarks. At the top, Gen11 could provide twice the performance of Gen9, if this leak proved to be accurate.
