Intel Gaudi2 Accelerator MLPerf Benchmarks Show A Viable AI Alternative To NVIDIA’s GPUs

12.09.2023 - 13:25 / wccftech.com / Ai

Intel has released updated MLPerf benchmarks of its Gaudi2 accelerators, which have been the talk of the town recently. The data obtained proves that the Gaudi AI accelerators are framing out to be a viable alternative to NVIDIA's H100 GPUs, allowing Intel to get its share of the "AI hype".

Before diving into the benchmarks, it is important to realize that the AI industry is predicted to grow exponentially in the coming years. Gartner, an American insight firm, has disclosed that the AI industry is set to reach a $53.4 billion valuation in 2023, which is an increment of 20.9% from the previous year. Moreover, the firm predicts that the industry could almost reach the $120 billion mark by 2027, which is a prime reason why companies like Intel and AMD are striving to make a dominant entry with their own AI solutions.

Based on the data released by Intel, Gaudi2 accelerators have seen a decent performance uplift, outperforming NVIDIA's A100 AI GPUs by a good margin. Intel says that their Gaudi2 accelerator offers much better "value" compared to their counterparts in the market, and they are indeed right given the inflated prices NVIDIA's AI GPUs are being sold at.

While the above-mentioned statistics are indeed impressive, Intel has left out some details to reveal such as relevant TDP and temperature stats. They don't matter in the longer run especially with the current state of the industry, since the H100s are facing an immense shortage, with the demand and supply chain disrupted due to an "influx" of huge orders. In light of this, Intel's Gaudi2 accelerators are turning out to be a strong alternative, however, work still needs to be done here.

Apart from Gaudi accelerators, Intel also revealed some benchmarks of their 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable and Xeon CPU Max, which have been lately thriving in the industry due to the performance value they bring onboard. These are the main result highlights:

David Zinsner, in a meeting at the Citi Global Technology Conference, revealed that Intel has seen the perfect opportunity to establish itself as a player in the AI industry, saying that it has received massive interest in its Gaudi accelerators as an alternative to NVIDIA AI GPUs, which are currently in a tough spot when it comes to production and delivery stages.

The challenges in getting GPUs — I think we see more customers taking a look at Gaudi as an alternative. And in addition, the price points are better and more attractive.

Zinsner has expressed the company's attention to adopting a more "balanced" approach in the AI industry, offering competitive products. The official has realized that fact that the company's Sapphire Rapids lineup has received more attention, while the AI accelerator department was left