Intel Arc graphics card: Release date, Price, Design, specs, and everything we know so far
On its own website in 2021, Intel revealed Intel Arc, a new brand of graphics technology that aims to compete with Nvidia and AMD, with a video teasing what to anticipate from the first graphics card in the series when it launches in 2022. With the announcement of the first Intel Arc graphics cards in late March 2022, the firm kept its pledge. Despite the fact that desktop graphics cards are in the works, Intel’s first graphics cards are aimed at laptops, bringing gaming capability to ultrabooks.
What might we expect from the IT behemoth, then? Is the Intel Arc series a direct competitor to Nvidia’s RTX 30 Series and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 Series? We’ve gathered all of the most recent Intel Arc GPU news in one place.
When was the first Intel Arc graphics card released?
The first of many Intel Arc graphics cards, codenamed Alchemist, was initially scheduled for availability during Q1 2022, which runs from January to March 2022. However, Intel removed all mentions of a Q1 2022 release from its Intel Arc page on its website just days after the CES 2022 announcement, implying that the release could be pushed out later in the year.
Intel then unveiled Intel Arc during an event on March 30th, which focused on the Arc A-series mobile GPUs, particularly the inexpensive Arc 3 series. Laptops with the new A350M and A370M graphics cards will be available for pre-order today, with more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 mobile graphics cards due out in “early summer,” according to Intel.
What is the price of the Intel Arc graphics card?
Laptops featuring the Intel Arc 3 series processor will start at $899 in the United States, with the Arc 5 and Arc 7 series processors projected to cost more once they are released later this year.
Features and specifications of the Intel Arc A-series
While Intel’s Arc GPU family will eventually cover both desktop and laptop applications, the Intel Arc A350M and A370M GPUs that are now available are low-powered and designed for ultrathin laptops rather than dedicated gaming laptops. The Arc branding matches the company’s familiar i3, i5, and i7 branding on its CPUs, providing users a quick method to judge performance without having to delve through specs.
The chipset is based on Intel’s Xe HPG graphics architecture, which includes Intel’s XE cores, XE Media Engine, XE Display Engine, and XE Graphics Pipeline, as well as support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray-tracing, and XE Super Sampling. There are 16 256-bit Vector Engines, 16 1,024-bit Matrix Engines, and 192KB of shared memory in each XE core. With hardware encoding up to 8K 10-bit HDR and hardware acceleration, the XE Media Engine is designed to aid video playing.
The XE Panel Engine, on the other hand, is meant to power up to 8K screens at 60Hz, 4 x 4K displays at 120Hz or a single 1440p display at 360Hz. Both the A350M and A370M are optimized for 1080p gaming at 60 to 90 frames per second.
The entry-level A350M consumes between 25 and 35 watts to run its six XE cores, six ray-tracing units, 1,150MHz graphics clock, and 4GB of VRAM. Thanks to an added 8 XE cores, 8 ray tracing units, 1,1550MHz graphics clock, and the same 4GB of VRAM, the more powerful A370M draws 35-50 watts.
The Arc 5 and Arc 7 graphics cards, as you can see, will push performance even farther, but they won’t be available until this summer. Intel also unveiled Intel Arc Control, a software package akin to Nvidia’s GeForce Experience and AMD’s Radeon Software, with the hardware. Arc Control, like its competitors, allows Arc users to track performance, install drivers and other upgrades, record game highlights, and even link to live streaming programs like Xsplit to make game streaming easier. Deep Link, a feature meant to give Arc cards a performance boost when used with Intel’s integrated graphics in its CPUs, is also available.