Intel splits GPU division to accelerate adjustment to cope with loss pressure

     Intel recently announced that it is splitting its Accelerated Computing Group (AXG) in two to better focus on the consumer and data center graphics markets. The consumer graphics division will be merged with Intel's Customer Computing division (CCG), which makes chips for personal computers. The Accelerated Computing team will join its Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Business Unit (DCAI). Intel CEO Kissinger has high hopes for the development of the GPU business, he has said that when he left Intel 12 years ago, he saw "developing the GPU business" as the only unfinished regret, and now he has the opportunity to complete the goal.

     The group's consumer graphics team, responsible for Intel's Arc standalone graphics cards, will join Intel's Customer Computing Group. The Accelerated Computing team will join the Data Center and Artificial Intelligence group - another important enterprise market for graphics processing. NVIDIA is dominant in both markets. It's easy to interpret this reorganization and realignment as a bad omen for Arc Gpus, but Intel insists it has no plans to fade the brand. The company said it will continue to support the Alchemist line and still plans to launch its follow-on products, Battlemage and Celestial, in the coming years.

     Intel had to delay Alchemist graphics cards several times until mid-2022, which delayed the warplanes so that they didn't have a noticeable impact on NVIDIA and AMD's market share. Intel's Arc 380 has proven to be a disappointment on all fronts when compared to other low-end Gpus like AMD's Radeon RX 6400 or NVIDIA's GTX 1650. At the same time, the A750 and A770 are only marginally superior to NVIDIA's mid-range cards from a year and two years ago, suggesting that delays are putting Intel behind the Red and green pace.

     At launch, one of Arc Alchemist's most prominent weaknesses was its disappointing performance in DirectX 11 and DirectX 9 games. Intel mainly focuses on DirectX 12 performance for playing the latest games, but many recent games still use DirectX 11. The company has had to play catch-up to improve the performance of older games, but its recent frequent driver updates show Intel isn't giving up just yet.

     The chip giant revealed that while it is committed to continuing development of Battlemage, it has not set any firm release date. The delays plaguing Alchemist taught Intel to be more cautious about entering a new field. Some analysts have said that the AXG division may lose more than $3 billion, including TSMC's investment in Intel's independent graphics card Arc GPU.