Intel XeSS Launches on May 20, with "Dolmen"

[btarunr]

The ambitious performance enhancement by Intel Graphics rivaling NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, the Intel XeSS (Xe Super Sampling,) will debut on May 20, 2022, with a patch for "Dolmen," developer Massive Work Studio announced. This matches our report from March 2022 that referenced an "early Summer" debut. This would mean Intel Graphics has a driver release planned very soon, for its Xe LP-based iGPUs and Iris Xe MAX discrete GPU; as well as the first round of Arc 3 "Alchemist" mobile graphics, which will launch with XeSS support.

Much like FSR and DLSS, XeSS works with a supported game to render raster 3D scenes at a lower resolution than the display resolution, and upscales them using a sophisticated algorithm that minimizes image quality loss, with a net gain in frame-rates. XeSS will play a particularly big role in Intel's plans to grab a slice of the gaming graphics market with its Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs. XeSS appears to work similar to AMD FSR 2.0, with its upscaler using motion-vectors and temporal data from the game engine to reconstruct details in the outbound frames. Also, much like FSR, XeSS will be open to GPUs from other brands.



Update May 17th: The Dolmen Twitter handle just put out an update that XeSS support is coming "this Summer," implying that it will not release on May 20 as earlier reported.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Now its a 3-way war. Little good XeSS does if there are no cards to use it.

 

[ModEl4]

I wonder if we are going to see from W1zzard a comparison article (supposedly it will support DLSS, XeSS, FSR 1.0 at launch and the plan is to support FSR 2.0 at a later date)

 

[Vayra86]

Now its a 3-way war. Little good XeSS does if there are no cards to use it.

No XeSS to the technology we have! Driver by Intel see we must!

 

[AusWolf]

Now its a 3-way war. Little good XeSS does if there are no cards to use it.

From the article: "Also, much like FSR, XeSS will be open to GPUs from other brands."

 

[zx128k]

That demo used a hardware-accelerated super sampling mode Intel calls XMX which will work exclusively on its recently unveiled Arc graphics cards, using their Xe Matrix Extension (XMX) cores. The other version of XeSS should run on any hardware with DP4a instruction, which includes Nvidia GPUs, AMD GPUs, and integrated graphics chips. Intel didn't go into detail on how well the DP4a version will work, but called it "a smart quality-performance trade-off."

Intel confirmed developers will be able to get their hands on the SDK for the XMX version of XeSS this month, with the DP4a version coming later this year. Intel plans to make the tools and SDK open-source later on as XeSS matures. source

 

[lexluthermiester]

Now its a 3-way war. Little good XeSS does if there are no cards to use it.

Intel is trying hard to be ready for and get the launch of their GPU line right. This is a good lead-up!

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

From the article: "Also, much like FSR, XeSS will be open to GPUs from other brands."

Even if it's open source, there's still a three way competition between Intel, AMD, and Nvidia for their tech to reach a majority marketshare, so I'm not sure why you're pointing out that specific quote as it doesn't change the fact that there's a three way competition.

On another topic, I could see Intel just wantonly throwing money around to developers to "incentivize" quick adoption of XeSS. While in a just world, the best solution would win out (based on the net sum of all its parts, e.g. Image quality as well as ease of integration, performance loss/gain, applicability to the most expansive amount of differing hardware, etc), it would be naive of me to have such expectations, so I would predict in the long run that Intel and Nvidia, through a war of financial attrition, will pinch out AMD... Although AMD does way more per dollar than either, so it's not like they don't have a fighting chance.

 

[W1zzard]

I wonder if we are going to see from W1zzard a comparison article (supposedly it will support DLSS, XeSS, FSR 1.0 at launch and the plan is to support FSR 2.0 at a later date)

Definitely, I already asked Intel if they can provide early access, so I can do lots of testing

 

[zlobby]

Seems intel didn't drop the LOL naming schemes...

 

[Bubster]

Cart before Horse !!! Release the card first then talk about fancy addons and upgrades and other tweaks.

 

[AusWolf]

Even if it's open source, there's still a three way competition between Intel, AMD, and Nvidia for their tech to reach a majority marketshare, so I'm not sure why you're pointing out that specific quote as it doesn't change the fact that there's a three way competition.

The post I replied to basically said that the technology is no use if there are no graphics cards to use it (referring to Arc, I guess). I pointed out that the article says that even AMD and Nvidia cards can run it, so you don't need an Arc GPU for XeSS.

 

[trsttte]

On another topic, I could see Intel just wantonly throwing money around to developers to "incentivize" quick adoption of XeSS. While in a just world, the best solution would win out (based on the net sum of all its parts, e.g. Image quality as well as ease of integration, performance loss/gain, applicability to the most expansive amount of differing hardware, etc), it would be naive of me to have such expectations, so I would predict in the long run that Intel and Nvidia, through a war of financial attrition, will pinch out AMD... Although AMD does way more per dollar than either, so it's not like they don't have a fighting chance.

Absolutely, and I think Nvidia will be the main looser, not AMD. Nvidia migth have a lot more background working with developers from being on the top for so long, but the competition is catching on both in contacts and in performance. Nvidia even with a first comer advantage, didn't get DLSS on that many games and being a technology exclusive to nvidia gpus means it's destined to die off when FSR is already proving to be comparable-ish with much wider potential market and much easier implementation (for FSR 1.0, which although clearly worse than DLSS i think can see some continued adoption on less demanding lower budget titles, but even FSR 2.0 is looking like it will be easier to adopt than DLSS and results are very comparable).

XeSS just takes Nvidia out of the picture if it's able to deliver because it promises what Nvidia won't do - access to the entire market - while using a similar-ish technology based on deep learning.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Definitely, I already asked Intel if they can provide early access, so I can do lots of testing

I hope they do! It'll be solidly fascinating to see your deep-dive on this hardware!

 

[W1zzard]

Bad news, Dolmen will launch without XeSS this week. Confirmed by the developer

https://twitter.com/x/status/1526227608135942144

and Intel, too

 

[usiname]

Bad news, Dolmen will launch without XeSS this week. Confirmed by the developer and Intel, too

Just as expected!

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

anyone else seeing a pattern here with intel?

Leak data > announce release date >> pretend there is an unknown delay > Leak performance data > Re-announce the leaked announced date > etc.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

The post I replied to basically said that the technology is no use if there are no graphics cards to use it (referring to Arc, I guess). I pointed out that the article says that even AMD and Nvidia cards can run it, so you don't need an Arc GPU for XeSS.

True but Arc has specific and proprietary hardware to accelerate Xess, so it would be nice to be able to test it out, early day's though so not much point for one game.

Oh , or not, kin el Intel.

 

[Dragokar]

It will be available with Arc xD

 

[mechtech]

Read that as Doleman and thought Dole. I want some pineapples now. Sorry
I’m still waking up.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Read that as Doleman and thought Dole. I want some pineapples now. Sorry
I’m still waking up.

This made me think of food, a pizza with Dole chunks and Che-xess?

 

[zlobby]

Read that as Doleman and thought Dole. I want some pineapples now. Sorry
I’m still waking up.

Repeat after me - A-NA-NAS!

This made me think of food, a pizza with Dole chunks and Che-xess?

We are doomed once Elon starts making the restaurant menus.

 

[mama]

Nope, not happening.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Now its a 3-way war. Little good XeSS does if there are no cards to use it.

You won't need an Intel card to use it!