Hardware News

Intel Larrabee GPU/GPGPU Details

Patrick "MACMAC" MacMillan

2008-08-04 09:04:29.0


TechGage has published new details regarding the upcoming Intel Larrabee architecture.

Here’s an excerpt:

“The architecture itself is fascinating, because it differs substantially from the typical GPUs. Instead of a single massive GPU core on-board, Larrabee will feature numerous Pentium-derived cores that are redesigned to better handle applications of all sorts in the visual computing scheme of things. Just how effective this method of scaling will prove to be in real-world application is yet to be seen, and it's sure going to be hard to wait.

Intel did provide performance scaling information, as seen in the chart above, and while it does give us a brief idea of the performance, it in no way gives us a real-world idea of what to expect. Eight cores might have delivered 25% of the performance of thirty-two cores, but that doesn't mean much if the eight cores mustered 4FPS in a randomly selected title.

For those interested in even deeper specifics regarding how Larrabee can improve graphic rendering (transparency, handling irregular Z-buffer, etc), Intel will be giving an in-depth presentation at SIGGRAPH next week in Los Angeles, and I'm sure many game development websites will be publishing lots of information on that.”


I can’t wait to see some real benchmark figures, but that is definitely still a long time away!

Click here to read the full article.

Update:

PC Perspective has also just posted a similar article.

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