Intel will still keep its Falcon Shores GPU, even if Battlemage still faces strong headwinds
As Intel looked to cut costs as part of its “next phase of transformation,” the Falcon Shores data center’s GPU appeared to be in danger of getting the ax. But a recent statement from the manufacturer provides some surprising news.
An Intel spokesperson confirmed that Falcon Shores will survive and continue to be released, with additional plans to integrate it with Gaudi AI processors. According to the spokesperson (and reported by HPC thread), “Our AI investments will complement and leverage our x86 franchise – with a focus on business-friendly, cost-efficient inference. Our roadmap for Falcon Shores remains in place.”
The statement coincides with a official blog post which not only reiterated the integration of Gaudi AI IP into Falcon Shores, but the latter is still planned for a 2025 release date. The post then went on to explain that the hybrid architecture would “provide an even more powerful deep learning platform,” and would provide an alternative to traditional GPU-heavy platforms.
Merging x86 CPU cores with Xe-HPC GPU cores into a Xeon socket was something Intel had been planning for years. first introduce the concept in 2022, and now it looks like it will come to fruition with Falcon Shores.
Intel’s future with graphics cards
Considering that Intel’s consumer GPU division continues to be threatened by the company’s cost cuts, I sincerely hope that the good news for Falcon Shores isn’t the end of the story.
Intel’s few offerings in consumer graphics products have easily been some of them best cheap graphics cards on the market, combining solid performance with great prices. And honestly, Team Red and Team Green could use some competition in that area, considering recent generations have seen little to no real budget cards.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that consumer graphics cards like the Intel Arc Battlemage won’t be canceled. But hopefully they’ll be safe next to Falcon Shores, because we need more competition in the consumer card space.