Intel has announced the designation for its upcoming player graphics cards and the code names of the three following generations, including the first technical details and a rough release date. Makes the beginning the new »Arc« range in the first quarter of 2022 (code name »Alchemist«).
»Arc« is only the first step: Intel wants to make life in the GPU segment difficult for AMD and Nvidia in the long term. This is made clear by the announcement that has already been made of the graphics cards following Arc. They appear under the code names “Battlemage”, “Celestial” and “Druid”. But more than the names are not yet known.
That Intel is serious is also shown by the following quote from the Intel Vice President for end customer products in the field of graphics cards:
“Today marks a key moment in the graphics card journey that we began only a few years ago. The starting shot for the Intel Arc brand and the unveiling of future generations of hardware signals Intel’s extensive and ongoing commitment to gamers and creators everywhere. “
Intel Arc: Area of Use and Technology
Arc is expected to hit the market in early 2022 in the form of both desktop graphics cards and notebook GPUs. In addition to hardware acceleration for ray tracing, Intel has also announced »AI-supported super-sampling«, which is probably a counterpart to Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s Fidelity FX Super Resolution.
These techniques make it possible to calculate an image in a lower resolution and to scale it up to a higher resolution using artificial intelligence. This should noticeably increase the FPS without having to accept major losses in image quality due to the lower render resolution.
Videos on the official webpage for Arc reveal a little more details, so the following supported functions are added:
- Mesh Shading
- Variable Rate Shading
- AI Accelerated Video Enhance
In addition, Intel shows the new GPUs in games in action, but without performance data. The most demanding title in terms of system requirements is probably Metro: Exodus including ray tracing.
How fast is Intel Arc going?
In the course of the year there were repeated rumors that the achievement of the performance regions of an RTX 3070 was in prospect:
more on the subject
Intel graphics cards: What benchmarks reveal about performance
However, only suitable test samples will enable reliable statements to be made.
In addition to hardware in the form of graphics cards, according to the press release, unspecified software and “services” should also belong to the Arc brand. Cloud gaming is also conceivable. So it says in one of the videos: »Direct access to the games we want to play, when we want to play them«.
In addition, Intel has announced that it will publish more information about the Arc family in the coming weeks and months. As soon as that happens, you will find out about it on GameStar.de.
How do you rate Intel’s chances of competing with AMD and Nvidia in the long-term as strong competition for gamer graphics cards? Very good, very bad, or something in between? Feel free to write it in the comments!
