We've been sitting here, waiting for Intel Xe graphics cards (GPUs) for years at this point, but we might have finally seen something that gives us an idea of what they'll look like.
And, PC gamers might want to brace themselves.
Intel's first Xe graphics cards will be code named "Ponte Vecchio," according to a leaked press deck spotted by VideoCardz. Rather than taking on AMD and Nvidia in the perennial graphics card war, however, these Intel Ponte Vecchioi GPUs will instead be intended for Exascale computing. So, they'll probably be very powerful and very expensive.
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This is all a part of a supposed "Project Aurora," which will see these Intel Xe graphics cards launch alongside some new Xeon processors and a new API for programmers. All of this further cements these graphics cards as non-gaming PC components, but it at least means some interesting technology may filter down to the consumer market at some point, even if we don't know what that technology looks like yet.
There's still hope for anyone waiting for Intel gaming graphics cards with bated breath, though. According to VideoCardz, there was a slide in the press deck that said we'd see gaming cards from Intel eventually – we just might not see them right away.
Whenever we see Intel Xe graphics cards enter the mainstream, however, it will be about time. We can't wait to see what the graphics card landscape will look like once a third company enters the ring. Who knows, graphics cards might become affordable again once Nvidia has some tough competition at the high end. But, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
