Intel’s keynote this GDC 2019 was met with some disappointment since it did not revolve around an official announcement of a GPU. Attendees were offered a brief glimpse at the reference design for the GPU, codenamed ‘Arctic Sound’. While the design may not indicate the final product, it does give a good hint as to what we can expect when it comes out next year.
The new GPU sports a look quite similar to the Intel Optane SSDs, in particular the Intel Optane SSD 905P. The reference design does look slightly modified, admittedly smaller and bulkier.
The model incorporates only a single fan, blower style cooler as seen in the images. The chassis sports a silver metal aesthetic and is called ‘Dragon Scale’. It is assumed that the model shown is a cheaper, entry-level GPU, though mid and high-end models may be teased (or announced) later.
Intel also revealed a new graphics tuning software, the supposed equivalent of the NVIDIA Geforce Experience and the AMD Radeon Software. Called the Intel Graphics Command Center, it will allow automatic game detection, one click optimization as well as a critical analysis of in-game visual settings. While the software is only supported by integrated Intel graphics chipsets for now, it is assumed that the software is being developed with the discrete GPUs in mind, which have an expected release date of somewhere in 2020.
Kudos, Techradar.