Posted Sep 28, 2022, 6:12 PMUpdated on Sep 28, 2022 at 6:44 PM
In its quest for a second chance in the graphics processor market, Intel is taking it to the next level. Known for its chips intended for computer calculation (CPU) of which it largely dominates the world market, the Santa Clara company has just announced that it will market for the first time in more than twenty years dedicated graphics cards (GPU) to the fluidity of the images in the video game. Unlike previous models that were drip-selling to third-party specialty PC makers, Intel wants to ramp up and also make these available at retail from October 12 for gamers who configure their own installs.
Faced with its eternal rivals AMD and especially Nvidia, which have imposed a virtual duopoly on this market with high added value, Intel intends to differentiate itself by its prices. Called “Arc 770”, its graphics card will be sold from 329 dollars, against more than 400 dollars for comparable models from Nvidia. “In recent years, GPU prices have doubled. Today… everything will change,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s CEO, during a conference where he presented the group’s innovations to developers.
Internal legend
Returning to the helm of Intel in January 2021 to solve the group’s problems on the innovation front, this engineer had become an internal legend in the company’s heyday. Left to lead VMware in 2009, he was sorry for the removal of this event from Intel’s calendar. On his return to the company with an annual revenue of 79 billion dollars, the boss immediately reinstated the tradition, with the firm intention of finishing the R&D work he had left when he left.
Already at that time, Intel was looking for a loophole to regain a foothold in the GPU market, after an initial failure in the late 1990s. “Their products weren’t good, they got very hot,” recalls an observer.
Tempting prospects
Seeking to diversify its revenues as competition intensifies in the CPU market, Intel is returning to a GPU market that has just emerged from a shortage situation. The interest of cryptocurrency professionals in high-performance graphics cards – which they divert to mining on blockchains – has waned with the fall in financial indices. But the prospects remain attractive in a market with more than 20 billion dollars in annual revenue and set to grow in the future.
That’s why Intel plays big in this universe. Beyond the world of video games, the group also presented two other GPU processors intended to equip computer servers in large data centers. This type of microchip works wonders for training artificial intelligence systems.
Intel’s return coincides with a troubled time for Nvidia. Affected by the drop in PC sales and by an American ban on selling its most powerful chips in China, Jensen Huang’s company is also criticized for its prices. More powerful than those that Intel has just presented, the latest GPUs for video games presented by Nvidia last week will cost between 899 and 1,599 dollars. AMD, meanwhile, is due to present its new products in early November.
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