Intel’s Arc GPUs arrive to fill in the gaps

Intel said Tuesday at CES 2022 that it has begun shipping its Arc graphics processors to customers, including both the mobile and desktop variants.

Intel had already said that the Arc GPUs (code-named Alchemist) were scheduled to ship during the first quarter of 2022, so the announcement comes as no surprise. Still, the availability of Arc graphics will alleviate some of the pressure on the GPU market, which has been beset by supply shortages that are expected to continue into 2022. Intel didn’t identify any specific product names, specifications, or prices of the new chips.

Over 50 customers have signed up to use Arc GPUs, Intel said, including Acer, Asus, Clevo, Dell, Gigabyte, Haier, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI, and NEC. Intel’s customer list includes both desktop and mobile GPUs, with no indication if mobile would be favored over desktop, or vice versa. Intel also didn’t highlight any specific PCs in a press release distributed to reporters.

Intel didn’t make any specific performance claims about Arc’s performance in its release, which is a bit odd given the prevalence of benchmarks and gameplay video that normally accompany such launches. In this environment, however, merely shipping the GPU is a victory both for the PC market as well as Intel itself, as PCWorld’s Gordon Mah Ung has argued before. Leaker momomo_us unearthed a SiSoftware benchmark for an Intel Arc A380 chip, though that’s a rumor for now.

Intel’s Arc GPU technology offers many of the same big-name features as its more established GPU rivals, at least on paper. Intel has said that Arc will boast hardware ray tracing (as well as mesh shading and pixel sampling) and will offer its own version of Nvidia’s DLSSS 2.0, which upscales 1080p resolutions to the equivalent of 4K. Intel calls this XeSS, and the company said that it’s “currently being integrated into many game titles across a range of publishers, including Death Stranding: Directors’ Cut.” Intel also said that other studios, such as 505 Games, Codemasters, Ubisoft, and PUBG Studios have committed to supporting the XeSS technology.

Arc will also support Deep Link, which offers performance advantages when paired with an Intel CPU, presumably the 12th-gen Alder Lake processors that launched today at CES.

At CES, Intel launched new “Alder Lake” 12th-gen Core processors, both for desktops as well as an official Alder Lake launch for notebook PCs. The company also fleshed out its Evo brand program, expanding into desktops and peripherals.