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Intel Xe DG1 SDV

Intel Xe DG1 SDV: Detailed Review of a Budget Graphics Card

April 2025

Introduction

The Intel Xe DG1 SDV graphics card is an intriguing product that combines affordability with innovation. Developed as part of Intel's strategy to capture a share of the GPU market, this model is positioned as a solution for casual gamers and office tasks. As of 2025, it remains relevant thanks to driver updates and its low price. Let's explore who the DG1 SDV is suitable for and what compromises to consider.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Xe-LP (Low Power) Architecture

The DG1 SDV is built on the Xe-LP architecture, optimized for energy efficiency. The manufacturing process is 10nm Enhanced SuperFin, balancing performance and heat generation.

Unique Features

- XeSS (Xe Super Sampling): Similar to NVIDIA's DLSS, it boosts FPS through AI upscaling. In tests, gains reach 30-40% in games supporting the technology (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077).

- Hardware Ray Tracing: Basic RT implementation, but due to the limited number of RT cores (8), it should only be activated in less demanding projects (e.g., Minecraft RTX).

- FidelityFX Support: Compatibility with AMD’s open technologies enhances detail in games without taxing the GPU.

No CUDA Support: The card is inadequate for tasks requiring CUDA (e.g., rendering in Blender with OptiX).

2. Memory: Type, Volume, and Impact on Performance

- Memory Type: GDDR6 (as opposed to the original DG1 with LPDDR4X).

- Volume: 6 GB is a compromise for 2025. This is sufficient for gaming at 1080p, but 1440p may experience dips (for example, in Hogwarts Legacy, textures load with delays).

- Bandwidth: 192 GB/s (96-bit bus width). This speed is lower than competitors (NVIDIA RTX 3050 — 224 GB/s), limiting performance in resource-heavy scenes.

Advice: For comfortable gaming, lower texture settings to medium.

3. Gaming Performance

1080p (Low/Medium Settings):

- Apex Legends: 65-70 FPS.

- Fortnite: 50-55 FPS (with XeSS — up to 75 FPS).

- Elden Ring: 40-45 FPS (without RT).

1440p: Only suitable for lighter projects (CS:GO 2 — 90 FPS). In AAA games (e.g., Starfield), FPS drops to 25-30 even on low settings.

Ray Tracing: Activating RT reduces performance by 40-50%. In Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, low settings + RT) — 22-28 FPS.

Conclusion: The card is suitable for esports and indie games, but not for ultra settings or 4K.

4. Professional Tasks

- Video Editing: In Premiere Pro, rendering 1080p video takes 20% longer than on the NVIDIA RTX 3050. However, Quick Sync support accelerates H.265 encoding.

- 3D Modeling: In Blender (using OpenCL), rendering a medium-level scene takes 15-20 minutes compared to 8-10 minutes for competitors.

- Scientific Calculations: Limited OpenCL support makes the card unsuitable for complex simulations.

Advice: For professional tasks, it's better to choose NVIDIA with CUDA or AMD with ROCm.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

- TDP: 50W — one of the most energy-efficient cards in its segment.

- Cooling: Passive heatsink + small fan. Maximum temperature under load is about 75°C.

- Case Recommendations: A case with 1-2 fans is sufficient. Ideal for compact builds (Mini-ITX).

6. Comparison with Competitors

- NVIDIA GTX 1650 (2025): Priced at $180. Performance is 15% higher, but lacks RT and XeSS support.

- AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT: $170. Performs better at 1440p, but has higher power consumption (75W).

- Intel Arc A310: $160. Closest Intel alternative with similar specs but less optimized drivers.

Summary: DG1 SDV ($150) stands out due to its price and XeSS support but lags in raw performance.

7. Practical Tips

- Power Supply: A 300W PSU is sufficient, even for low-power builds.

- Compatibility: Requires a motherboard with UEFI that supports Resizable BAR. Best integrated with Intel 10th generation processors and newer.

- Drivers: By 2025, stability has improved, but artifacts may occur in some games (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare V).

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Price of $150 — one of the lowest in the market.

- Support for XeSS and RT.

- Energy efficiency.

Cons:

- Only 6 GB of memory.

- Weak performance in 1440p/4K.

- Limited driver optimization for professional software.

9. Final Verdict: Who is the Intel Xe DG1 SDV for?

This graphics card is an ideal choice for:

- Office PCs and HTPCs: Quiet operation, low power consumption.

- Casual Gamers: For gaming at 1080p on medium settings.

- Budget Builds: Cheaper than most alternatives.

However, if you dream of 4K or professional rendering, consider more powerful models. The DG1 SDV is a reasonable compromise, but not a cure-all.

Prices are accurate as of April 2025. Please check compatibility with your system before purchase.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Desktop

Model Name

Xe DG1 SDV

Generation

Xe Graphics

Base Clock

900MHz

Boost Clock

1500MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 4.0 x8

Transistors

Unknown

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

Intel

Process Size

10 nm

Architecture

Generation 12.1

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

8GB

Memory Type

LPDDR4X

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

2133MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

68.26 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

36.00 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

72.00 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

4.608 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

576.0 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

2.35 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

768

L2 Cache

1024KB

TDP

75W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_1)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.4

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

250W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

2.35 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

FirePro W7000

2.481 +5.6%

Radeon Pro WX 4170 Mobile

2.411 +2.6%

Xe DG1 SDV

2.35

GeForce GTX 760

2.33 -0.9%

GRID K240Q

2.243 -4.6%