Intel shifts Data Center Max GPU series around
The company has confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that it will not release one of the already announced Ponte Vecchio SKUs.
Intel has been through some important changes recently. The most important one was the restructuring of the AXG unit responsible for data center accelerators like Ponte Vecchio, and later the departure of Raja Koduri from the company. Earlier this year, Intel also confirmed it will cancel Rialto Bridge, a successor to Ponte Vecchio, and move its product launch to a 2-year cadence.
Meanwhile, it was discovered that the Max 1350 GPU, which was already announced and ‘launched’ according to Intel, has now been canceled. The Max 1350 specs are still displayed on cached website, but the live product link now leads to an empty page. The company has decided to remove this product from its lineup in favor of a more powerful Max 1450 GPU which is to come out later this year.
Data Center GPU Max 1350 Specs (before cancellation), Source: Intel
As explained, the company was able to deploy an air-cooled Data Center GPU Max 1550 GPU, which was initially planned only for liquid-cooled systems. As a result, the Max 1350, which was primarily targeted at air-cooled systems did was no longer a good fit for this product lineup. Instead, Intel has come up with a new SKU called Max 1450, which is now expected to launch later in 2023.
“We launched the Intel Data Center Max GPU 1550 (600W), which was initially targeted for liquid-cooled solutions only. We have since expanded our support by offering Intel Data Center Max GPU 1550 (600W) to include air-cooled solutions. […] As a result, we are streamlining our product offerings by removing the Intel Data Center Max GPU 1350 (450W), which was geared for air-cooled solutions. We will introduce the Data Center GPU Max 1450 SKU later in 2023, which has lower IO bandwidth for different markets and will be able to use air- and liquid-cooling solutions. Rounding out our product portfolio, we will introduce the Data Center GPU Max 1100 SKU, which is a 300W PCIe card (Gen5) for broad market deployments,”
— Intel spokesperson to Tom’s Hardware.
Intel has not confirmed the specs of Max 1450, but since 1350 was not using a full Ponte Vecchio silicon, the 1450 is likely to follow suit. The GPU was cut-down to 112 Xe-Cores and had TDP limited to 450W. It is possible that the Max 1450 will use similar TDP specs.
| Intel Data Center Max GPU 1000 Series (Ponte Vecchio) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | Max 1550 | Max 1450 🆕 | Max 1350 | Max 1100 |
| GPU | Ponte Vecchio | Ponte Vecchio | Ponte Vecchio | Ponte Vecchio |
| Xe-Cores | TBC | |||
| Xe Vector Engines | TBC | |||
| GPU Base Clock | TBC | |||
| GPU Dynamic Clock | TBC | |||
| Memory | TBC | |||
| Memory Bus | TBC | |||
| Memory Bandwidth | TBC | |||
| Interface | PCIe Gen5 x16 | TBC | PCIe Gen5 x16 | PCIe Gen5 x16 |
| TDP | TBC | |||
| Cooling | Liquid or Air-Cooled | Liquid or Air-Cooled | Air-Cooled | Air-Cooled |
Source: Tom’s Hardware