Intel's DG2 GPU Shows GTX 1050-Like Performance in Early Benchmarks

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Intel's DG2 GPU Shows GTX 1050-Like Performance in Early Benchmarks

DG2 comes out to play. Two new benchmarks for upcoming Intel's DG2 GPU emerged today, pointing to performance similar to that of Nvidia's dated GeForce GTX 1050.

One of the benchmarks (via Leakbench) points to the discrete variant, while the other (via Benchleaks) is likely the integrated solution for Intel's upcoming 12th Generation Alder Lake CPUs. Insyde, a renown UEFI maker, performed the tests, giving them some credibility, but we still recommend approaching the results with caution because of early drivers, thermal limits and other factors likely affecting performance. 

The first DG2 submission exposed a discrete graphics card with 256 execution units (EUs) and a maximum frequency of 1,400 MHz. The specifications match those of one of the rumored DG2 variants. Although the rumor pointed to 8GB of GDDR6 memory, the DG2 from the Geekbench 5 benchmark had 6.22GB.

The DG2 graphics card scored 18,482 points in OpenCL. According to the official Geekbench 5 ranking, the GeForce GTX 1050 is able to post a score of 18,230-18,895. Therefore, the DG2's performance is right up the Pascal graphics card's alley.

The second DG2 submission detected the GPU with only 96 EUs with a maximum clock speed of 1,200 MHz. Given the EU count and the 1.5GB memory, we suspect this is an iGPU. Even before this benchmark, there were already rumors that Intel will pair the DG2 with its upcoming Alder Lake-P chips. 

This variant raked in a score of 6,516 points, so its performance is slightly lower than that of a GeForce GTX 460.

Both DG2 units emerged alongside a 14-core, 20-thread Alder Lake processor. So we suspect it's the mobile variant (Alder Lake-P). The FCBGA package from the submission tells us that Insyde is probably working on a system validation platform (SVP), which is essentially a desktop motherboard.

The Alder Lake-P part reportedly features a 797 MHz base clock and 3,989 MHz boost clock. The drastic variation in clock speeds is due to the hybrid design with the Golden Cove and Gracemont cores.

The fact that Insyde is already validating Alder Lake support on its products shows that Intel's new 12th Generation lineup is marching along just fine. In fact, Alder Lake is very close to hitting the market since outside manufacturers, such as Insyde, don't get access to hardware until the latter stages of development. 

We won't know if Alder Lake can compete with the best CPUs until its official launch. Intel hasn't confirmed a concrete date, but we're expecting a late 2021 or early 2022 debut. 
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