The first functional discrete 'Xe' GPU, codenamed 'DG1', was reported as having begun testing in October 2019. In June 2018, Intel confirmed it planned to launch a discrete GPU in 2020. The project was reported to have initially been targeting video streaming chips for data centers, but had its scope expanded to include desktop GPUs. Rumors supporting the claim included that the company had vacancies for over 100 graphics-related jobs, and had taken on former Radeon Technologies Group (AMD) leader Raja Koduri in late 2017 – the new product was reported to be codenamed 'Arctic Sound'. In April 2018, it was reported that Intel was assembling a team to develop discrete graphics processing units, targeting both datacenters, as well as the PC gaming market, and therefore competitive with products from both Nvidia and AMD.

Intel made another attempt with the Larrabee architecture before canceling it in 2009 this time, the technology developed was used in the Xeon Phi, which was discontinued in 2020. However, its technology lived on in the Intel Extreme Graphics lineup.

The Intel740 was considered unsuccessful due to its performance which was lower than market expectations, causing Intel to cease development on future discrete graphics products. Intel's first attempt at a dedicated graphics card was the Intel740, released in February 1998. The Xe GPU family consists of a series of microarchitectures, ranging from integrated/low power (Xe-LP), to enthusiast/high performance gaming (Xe-HPG), datacenter/high performance (Xe-HP) and high performance computing (Xe-HPC).

Intel Xe includes a new instruction set architecture. Wa_cq_url: '/content/Intel Xe (stylized as X e and pronounced as two separate letters, abbreviation for 'e Xascale for everyone' ), earlier known unofficially as Gen12, is a GPU architecture developed by Intel. Wa_audience: 'emtaudience:consumer/gamer,emtaudience:consumer/pcconsumer,emtaudience:consumer/pcconsumer', Wa_english_title: 'Intel® Iris® Xe and Iris® Plus Graphics', Wa_emt_org: 'emtorganizationalstructure:ccgclientcomputinggroup', Wa_emtsubject: 'emtsubject:itinformationtechnology/pcupgrade', Wa_emtcontenttype: 'emtcontenttype:donotuse/webpage/landingpage',

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