Image: Intel
Here is everything we know about Intel’s upcoming Alchemist gaming GPUs, including their rumoured delay.
Intel’s new gaming graphics cards were originally announced for an early 2022 release, but it is looking increasingly likely that the company won’t make that date. The first generation of these cards will launch under the name Intel Arc Alchemist, but precise details on the GPUs continue to be murky leading up to their release. Intel is keeping its cards close to the chest on this one, but here’s everything we know about Intel Arc Alchemist so far:
What exactly is Intel Arc Alchemist?
In case you missed it, Intel first announced its upcoming GPUs back in August 2021. These cards will be released through the company’s newly formed Intel Arc brand, which covers its software and hardware gaming products. Intel Arc’s first generation of GPUs are currently codenamed Alchemist, but the company isn’t stopping there. Future generations of Intel Arc GPUs are already in the works, with the Alchemist’s eventual successor codenamed Battlemage. Following Battlemage is Celestial, and following Celestial is Druid. We know very little about Battlemage, Celestial and Druid right now, besides the fact that they have pretty cool names.
Let’s focus on Alchemist, then. To showcase the GPU’s capabilities, Intel released a video (seen above) showing off ten different games running on Alchemist. The GPU is capable of rendering features with effects such as AI Accelerated Super Sampling, mesh shading, XeSS (Xe Super Sampling), Variable Rate Shading and of course, real-time ray tracing. It will also support DirectX 12 Ultimate. Performance-wise, it looks like Intel is looking to compete with AMD and Nvidia to offer the best GPUs on the market.
We don’t know exactly how much the Alchemist cards will go for, but rumours point to a US$600 range. The cards were first announced with a release window of early 2022, but no concrete release date has been set just yet. We also don’t have a definitive list of technical specifications for these cards. At CES 2022, Intel stated that more than 50 laptop and desktop designs will launch with Intel Arc GPUs ‘soon’. After this announcement was made however, Intel plucked that ‘early 2022’ release window from its Arc website. This move sparked rumours that the cards may be delayed, but more on that later.
Why would you want these cards?
Right now, you might be asking yourself: “Why should I even care about Intel Arc Alchemist?” The answer depends on whether or not you’d like to game with the best performance possible. After all, competition is generally good for consumers. It often leads to innovation and more competitive pricing in the long run of any industry.
Rumours point to Intel wanting to launch these GPUs at an aggressive price point to compete with Nvidia and AMD. If that ends up being the case, you could potentially get top-tier gaming performance at a lower cost. While that certainly sounds enticing, we should point out that all this only comes to fruition if the new cards are up to par with expectations. Intel has a lot riding on this.
Have the cards actually been delayed?
According to YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead, Intel plans to delay the launch of its Arc Alchemist cards to the second quarter of 2022. The cards were originally rumoured for a March release this year, but the company will likely miss that window due to driver issues. According to the YouTuber, Intel wants to make sure the GPU’s drivers offer the best performance possible at launch, which wasn’t going to happen at the intended Q1 2022 release window. This delay will also allow Intel to beef up stock for a bigger launch, and avoid staggering out Alchemist’s release over a longer period of time.
Moore’s Law Is Dead points to the lower-end cards in the Alchemist lineup hitting laptops in April. A more complete launch of the GPU’s lineup will follow sometime between April and June, with GPUs hitting desktops at the same time too. As for more details on this lineup's specs and pricing, we’ll just have to wait and see for now.