Intel Demos DX11 Support on Ivy Bridge Ultrabook

During an Intel press conference held earlier this week at CES, something embarassing happened. And I do mean embarassing. While attempting to show off a DirectX 11 demo on an upcoming Ivy Bridge processor, Intel executive Mooly Eden attempted to show F1 2011 in action on the projection screen. In during so, someone moved the mouse to the computer which revealed that it wasn’t a game being run, but a video of the game being run.

Intel hasn’t issued a formal comment about the incident, but to help prove that Ivy Bridge can run DX11 titles, some journalists were treated to a private briefing where the real game was being run on a prototype notebook. Anand was one such person to see this action first-hand, and has posted a video on his site for all to see. It was also verified that Intel’s graphics chip was in fact the only one installed in the notebook, negating the possibility for a follow-up cheat.

So why did Intel fake the demo at the press event? With presentations like these, things can change at the last minute, and not everyone coordinates well-enough. It could have been that Mooly Eden thought he was really going to be playing the game. Skeptics might disagree, but I find it very hard to believe that an Intel executive would knowing try to pull one over on the press like this, especially when it’s been proven that real gameplay is in fact possible.

Either way, that is not how any company would like their demo to go down. Especially a company like Intel.