I wonder if this was designed for an Apple product? Maybe a new iMac or Mac mini?
- The Quad-Core Mac Minis from 2011 & 2012 with 45W TDP. (e.g. i7-3720QM)
- The 2011 Mac Mini with dGPU with 35+26=61W TDP. (i7-2620M + Radeon HD 6630M)
Mind you, we can always dream that Apple will care about those of us who have wanted a Mac without a built-in display that fits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.
We all thought the whole reason of sticking a dGPU close to CPU was because of space, hence a Notebook type machine. But if anyone could enlighten me why I want a desktop with Integrated dGPU rather then CPU+GPU combo which is likely cheaper, and easier to cool down.
Not to mention you are stuck with KabyLake 4 Core instead of the newer Coffee Lake with 6 Core.
Routing HBM to the GPU using PCB traces is expensive, and in the low-to-mid end, saving money on PCB and cooling matters. If EMIB is going to be used anyway, why not have the GPU in there as well. With 1024-bit 4GB HBM on package, memory bandwidth won't be a problem, and the i7-8809G will likely be faster than a PS4, which means it'll be good enough for 1080p gaming.
KabyLake was probably chosen because this design was finalized before Coffee Lake. The next iteration will likely have more cores.
1. It will only make sense if Intel were actually manufacturing the GPU themselves as well. In this case they dont. And EMIB is an Intel specific technology, AMD doesn't use it when they package HBM with their dGPU.
2. AMD makes a profit before selling it to Intel, and Intel has to make a profits for integrating it with EMIB, i doubt the cost saving of using EMIB together with HBM, if that was true, out done the profits margin of both companies.
However if a new chassis is in the works and space is a premium it could lead to an iMac with chips similar to this but that would be disappointing as many are waiting for six core processors. For an Mini, wouldn't that TDP be too high?
Apple has an odd relationship with its desktop models. With the iMac Pro and "promise" of a new mini and Mac Pro there is a lot of hope for a resurgence however short it might be.
This opens up for integrated GPUs on laptops as well, which would be very interesting.
GPUs use up tons of power, but 99% of the time they sit around and are "off". There's no need to turn on the GPU when browsing Facebook, and modern Win10 can keep the graphics card off.
Anyway, 100W TDP is perfectly acceptable for laptops, as long as this is a "worst case" TDP. Besides, gamers do want to game, and many are willing to accept bad battery life for the ability to run Witcher 3 or Tomb Raider on the go.