Despite comments from former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who was ousted from the company last month, Intel has no intention of eliminating its discrete graphics business. “We are very committed to the discrete graphics market and will continue to make strategic investments in this direction,” Intel’s new co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said in the company’s CES 2025 keynote. I just spoke to the audience. She says it’s a question she gets asked often.
Gelsinger was incredibly candid on a recent earnings call that the company’s radically different Lunar Lake laptop processors are something of a failed experiment from a financial perspective, and that discrete graphics He also suggested that the company’s investment in the company would not be “necessarily necessary.” Do you work with graphics? Integrated graphics capabilities are becoming increasingly large, reducing the need for discrete graphics in future markets. ”
Holthaus’ overall tone in this morning’s keynote was very upbeat despite Intel’s recent troubles, so Holthaus’ new statement is, “We’re backing away.” It could be a code for “but slowly and less overtly.” She also praised the Lunar Lake chips, calling 2024 “the best for Intel” on its performance and battery life strengths, even though the company just announced its Arrow Lake and upcoming Panther Lake chips. “This is the year that really reaffirmed our position as a leader in this AI PC market.” , the construction method is different.
(Holthaus reiterated that Panther Lake will be available in the second half of this year and said samples have already been shipped to all major customers.)
Intel’s future “strategic investments” may also be in AI rather than gaming. This is similar to how AMD and Nvidia have recently refocused on the huge opportunity there.
However, at least one more game card is on the way. According to Holthaus, Intel plans to launch its already announced next GPU, the B570 GPU, next week, which is an even more budget-friendly card than the B580.
