It has been a long time coming but looks like Intel is finally ready to deliver high-performance discrete GPUs and graphics cards into the market. The company today has announced that these new products as well as related software and services will be part of a new family called Intel Arc.
The company has revealed that the Xe-HPG DG2 GPU which has now been given a new codename Alchemist, will become the basis of Intel Arc’s first-generation products. Intel noted that Alchemist products will come with hardware-based ray tracing (something that we have heard back in 2019) alongside AI-drive super sampling and DirectX 12 Ultimate support.
Here's a sneak peek of pre-production Intel Arc graphics in action. https://t.co/VOMsMN6r2y #IntelArc pic.twitter.com/b9fOsXdRCq
— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) August 16, 2021
While there were no actual GPUs or graphics cards announced today, Intel said that more details will be revealed later this year as it gears up to the launch of Alchemist products that will take place within Q1 2022. Interesting enough, the launch period is in line with a rumour from earlier this month which claimed that the finalised DG2 lineup will be making its debut through Intel’s keynote at CES 2022.
Meanwhile, Intel also said that it is committed to delivering multiple generations of hardware through the new family. Hence, it has also revealed that the codenames of future Intel Arc products including Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid through today’s announcement.
Then again, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. With today’s announcement, we are certainly looking forward to see if Intel Arc is able to finally break the duopoly enjoyed by AMD and NVIDIA in the consumer graphics market.
