Intel has really kick-started its marketing for the Arc GPU series. Intel’s Tom Petersen and Ryan Shrout have appeared in various youtube videos and blogs to get the information regarding the cards out there however, only two desktop SKUs have been revealed and confirmed: A750 and A770, including their Limited Edition designs that should become available to customers at some point in the future.
The biggest problem with the way Intel is handling this is the lack of specifications. Intel hasn’t clearly given proper specifications for any of their cards apart from A380, which has already been launched. Just recently, they posted a useless video highlighting the meager features their cards offer.
Last week Intel confirmed it received the first batch of Arc A750 cards in their offices, those cards are now under internal testing and should ship to tech media soon. But even here, Intel did not specify when.
It looks like Moore’s Law is Dead’s video may explain why there are so few details on Arc GPUs.
According to leaked internal roadmaps, Intel might be communicating conflicting information about ARC internally and externally, which is just fueling the confusion surrounding the launch of the Alchemist series.
The video shows some of the slides that were leaked a couple of months ago, but the information in them conflicts with what is happening in the real world.
The slide above was supposedly shown about a month ago by the Intel graphics division to other Intel divisions. The roadmap clearly lists all known SKU names and shows that AIC (custom board) launch was planned for early August.
This month and especially this week should be when Intel and AICs ship cards to system integrators, but they are nowhere to be seen.
According to the AIC roadmap that covers one SKU specifically, A380, which has already been released in some parts of the world, Intel still did not know the release date for any of the custom designs just one month ago.
What this roadmap confirms is that at least five models were planned, but we already know about two (Gunnir and ASRock). The others should be ASUS, MSI, and possibly Gigabyte. The problem again here is that none of them have been revealed yet.
Another slide from the leaked roadmap shows that Intel had plans to launch Arc A770, A750, A580, and A380 to system integrators by the end of July. Neither OEMs who were supposed to manufacture those cards nor system integrators have announced systems equipped with such GPUs.
Just how much has Intel messed up here? Not only are the cards not launched till now, but neither are their specifications.
This slide also mentions ‘Desktop Launch: The Arc Experience”, which was supposedly planned as a global launch event for the desktop Alchemist series. Well, as far as I can see, there is no Intel event anywhere near today.
Lastly, Intel’s latest roadmaps show confusing messaging about Intel Arc desktop ‘Story’ being revealed in September. The slide specifically says ‘not Launch”, which may simply be poorly worded roadmap info or an actual confirmation of a delay to September.
Moore’s Law is Dead also revealed that there are rumors about a potential Alchemist refresh for laptops. He also noted that there are reportedly issues with Battlemage GPUs(successor to the Alchemist series) already.
All that considered, that are clearly some serious issues at the Intel graphics division that are heavily delaying the launch of their graphic cards. With a delayed launch, one would expect at least the cards to have an amazing performance, which is not the case here.
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.
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