Intel’s New Arc GPUs Could Be Released as Late as June This Year 

NVIDIA and AMD currently lead the GPU market with their graphics cards, but they may soon be getting some competition. Intel announced last year they would be getting into the market with their discrete line of Arc GPUs.  

The first in line, the Alchemist, was rumored for a Q1 release, but it seems it won’t be able to hit that mark. It seems Intel has pushed it back a bit, and some rumors suggest we will have to wait till summer to see them on shelves. 

A report from Igor’s Labs states that the first models of Intel’s new GPU line could be out by the start of either May or June this year, which is quite far away from the expected release date. 

Intel has not said anything regarding the issues behind the delay, but the report goes on to say it may be related to the software, specifically the drivers. Tests appear to result in some issues with the cards, so it is possible that the company may want to work on the drivers more to ensure the hardware is ready. 

The recent benchmarks reveal that Intel could go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA or AMD, as the Intel Arc was able to take on the RTX 3070, or even the RTX 3070 Ti, but some other tests suggest it may not be at that level just yet. Whether it is able to stack against the 3070 or not, it is clear Intel is targeting the mid to high-end portion of the GPU market, but it is highly doubtful it will go up against the likes of an RTX 3090. 

The ongoing semiconductor shortages are also a genuine hurdle for Intel. The company has come out and said that the shortage could go on till 2023, so it is difficult to gauge what the company’s state will be in the next few months. But the Arc cards need to come out soon, especially with the other competitors planning on releasing their next-generation cards later this year. 

About Intel

Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley. It is the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer on the basis of revenue, and is the developer of the x86 series of microprocessors – the processors found in most personal computers (PCs).

Incorporated in Delaware, Intel ranked No. 46 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.