Intel Arc Alchemist – release date, price, specs, benchmark rumours

Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards have arrived, and the new Intel GPU could compete with the best graphics cards by Nvidia and AMD. Not only do they boast gaming PC features like AI-enhanced Xe Supersampling – or XeSS for short – but Deep Link Technology aims to boost performance in hardware-accelerated tasks.

Intel has managed to keep its Alchemist cards mostly under wraps, but this hasn’t stopped benchmarks and spec sheets leaking ahead of the official launch date. First revealed in August, team blue was expected to pull back the curtain on its Xe-HPG based graphics cards during CES 2022, but unfortunately didn’t share even a crumb of new details.

The Arc Alchemist Intel graphics card lineup faces stiff competition from the likes of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 and AMD’s RX 6000 cards, and next-gen GPU options could pile on more pressure this year. That said, team blue has long term plans for its armada of Arc graphics options, and we could see the company release new contenders every year up to 2025.

Here’s everything we know about the new Intel GPU:

Intel Arc Alchemist release date

Gaming laptops featuring Arc GPUs are available now (Intel Arc A350M and A370M), and the rest of the lineup is scheduled to arrive in summer 2022, according to the Intel Arc Event in March. This includes an Arc 5 and Arc 7 tier of mobile chipsets and a “limited edition” Intel graphics card that caters to high-end gaming PC enthusiasts.

Igor’s Lab claims that we could see high-end Alchemist cards launch sometime between July 1 and August 31 of this year after a delay. Their sources claim that Intel wanted to release its most performative cards prior to these dates, but was forced to postpone for undisclosed reasons.

Intel Arc Alchemist price speculation

Intel has kept quiet regarding the price of its Arc Alchemist graphics cards, and there haven’t been any leaks that might give us a hint at any kind of MSRP. However, we do know that Intel is working with board partners like Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI to provide multiple variants of its GPUs, something that should help facilitate a variety of price points.

Intel Arc Alchemist GPU specs leaks

Arc Alchemist cards will be the first Intel components built with the company’s Xe-HPG (Xe-High Performance Graphics) architecture, otherwise known as ‘DG2’. They’ll support ray tracing and an Nvidia DLSS competitor dubbed XeSS to balance quality and boost fps.

Intel hasn’t revealed the specs of its desktop Arc graphics card just yet, but it has fully unveiled details relating to five discrete options. Just like with the company’s best gaming CPUs, the Arc Alchemist range is split up into three tiers – Arc 3, 5, and 7, with the latter representing high-end mobile graphics solutions.

Here are the Intel GPU specs we know so far:

Intel Arc Alchemist GPU benchmark rumours

Initial reports indicate that the Intel A500 or A700 Arc GPU will rival the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. We have, however, seen some leaks that indicate that the Intel A380 performs similarly to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super.

However, like all leaks, these benchmarks should be taken with a grain of salt, especially ones that arrive well before Alchemist’s release date. As soon as we get our hands on Intel’s GPUs, we’ll be happy to share our frame rate graphs and other findings.