Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has reiterated that the 1st Gen Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards are on track for a Q2 2022 launch. The statement came during the disappointing Q1 earnings call of the company, during which Gelsinger pretty much ignored the unavailability of laptops with Arc GPUs. As indicated previously, the Arc A350M and A370M should already be available in several OEM designs, but just aren’t (with some impractical exceptions).
The Arc 5 A550M and Arc 7 variants are expected to launch in early summer, but at Intel’s pace, we won’t see them this quarter either. Finally, regarding the range of desktop computers, it would be a miracle if the company manages to put them (in sufficient quantity) on the market even at the end of the summer.
AXG [Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group] is on time. We have already released the laptop models. In the second quarter, we will have the desktop models. And we will also have more models throughout the year. We will complete the product line
Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel
We’re likely looking at an early fall (late August/September) launch, right alongside the next-gen lineups from AMD and NVIDIA, which will make Intel parts highly redundant very soon. The high end The Arc A780 should compete with the Radeon RX 6700 XT and the GeForce RTX 3070:
| SKU | Radeon RX6700XT | GeForce RTX 3070 | Intel ARC A780 |
| Process | TSMC 7nm | Samsung 8nm | 6nm TSMC |
| Shaders | 2560 | 5888 | 4096 |
| Memory|Bus | 12 GB|128 bit | 8 GB | 256 bit | 16 GB|256 bit |
| Memory clock | 16 Gbps | 14 Gbps | 17.5 Gbps |
| Consumption | 230WW | 220W | 175W+ |
Learn more about Arc Alchemist’s GPU architecture here.
