Intel is building a graphics card team, potentially for discrete gaming GPUs

Intel dedicated graphics

Intel's re-entry into the world of dedicated graphics cards almost seems inevitable and now there are at least three reports that seem to back up the theory.

Motley Fool analyst Ashraf Eassa claims Intel is splitting its Arctic Sound – the alleged codename of Intel’s forthcoming discrete GPU – team to develop for gaming on top of its original intent to create data center video streaming apps.

Further backing up this rumor, both Forbes and Tweaktown claim to have confirmed that Intel is indeed working on a discrete graphics card for gaming. Both reports suggest that Raja Koduri, vice president of the Core and Visual Computing Group at Intel, is building a ‘great team’ for such an effort.

Coincidentally, the company is hiring no less than 102 engineers, developers and other great minds for its graphics-centric project.

All signs seem to point to Intel getting back into the graphics world and specifically for gaming – and honestly it makes a lot of sense. Although, Intel is fully established itself in the processor world, for the last few years it has been diversifying into other avenues such as Optane memory and SSD storage.

Graphics cards seems like the ultimate venture for Intel to explore with gaming and, to our chagrin, bitcoin mining making them sell like hotcakes. Plus, with Nvidia and AMD being the only two big names in GPUs, this segment of PC components really could use a new player.

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Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.