Intel's First Dedicated Graphics Cards to Launch in 2020

The high-end discrete graphics cards will reportedly target the PC gaming market and data centers, putting pressure on AMD and Nvidia. Intel hired a former AMD exec to lead the effort.

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Intel plans to release its first discrete GPUs in 2020, the chip maker said in a Tuesday tweet.

"Our plan is to introduce high-end discrete graphics solutions for a broad range of computing segments, including both the client and datacenter businesses," Intel added in a statement.

According to MarketWatch, the new GPUs will also target gaming, a market AMD and Nvidia have long dominated with their Radeon and GeForce products, respectively.

In November, Intel hinted at its ambitions to expand into dedicated PC graphics cards with the hiring of Raja Koduri, the former chief architect of AMD's Radeon Technologies Group, which is best known for developing gaming GPUs. Koduri was tasked with leading Intel's new, vaguely worded "Core and Visual Computing Group" with the goal of delivering "high-end, discrete graphics solution," the company said at the time.

Since Koduri's hiring, Intel has been attempting to fill dozens of job positions devoted to graphics hardware. Rumors also suggest Intel codenamed one of the upcoming GPUs "Arctic Sound."

Intel is focusing on discrete GPUs at a time when the technology is increasingly powering supercomputers and artificial intelligence software. Rival Nvidia has been watching its business soar on the company's GPUs being sold to more data centers.

However, even after the 2020 planned launched, analysts say it'll take time for Intel's upcoming graphics cards to become competitive with AMD and Nvidia. "Intel has never tried to build a traditional discrete graphics solution," Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights, told PCMag. The company's existing efforts have been focused on offering graphics through Intel's CPU chips, but the performance has been limited.

Moorhead said it'll probably take a "few revisions" of Intel's first GPUs before they become a real threat to AMD and Nvidia's business.