Intel Reaffirms ARC Alchemist Graphics Lineup Launch In Q1 2022, New Gameplay Trailer Unveiled at TGA 2021

During TGA 2021, Intel unveiled a new gameplay trailer of its upcoming ARC Alchemist graphics lineup which launches in Q1 2022.

Intel has been very serious and aggressive with its ARC graphics marketing and branding & as they should be since they are going to be competing against two huge players in this segment who have solid roots in the hearts and minds of gamers. As such, Intel isn't holding back and they released a new gameplay trailer at The Game Awards featuring a glimpse of their next-gen hardware and how well it will perform.

The tag line of the new video is 'A new player has entered the game' and showcases a range of AAA titles such as The Riders Republic, Age of Empires IV, Back 4 Blood, The Rift Breaker, Hitman III, and ARCADEGEDDON. Intel's ARC Alchemist lineup will feature a host of new technologies such as XeSS which is the highlight of the lineup and will offer AI-assisted super sampling within a range of titles. The Intel ARC lineup will also feature dedicated Ray-tracing cores and will be aimed at both mobile and desktop PCs.

With that said, the trailer also showcases multiple platforms including Laptop, Desktop, & AIO in a render that was done on an undisclosed ARC Alchemist GPU. The tag line during this shot is 'Let's Play Q1 2022' which is reaffirming the launch of the GPU lineup in Q1 2022. However, there have been reports that the laptop lineup will be the one launching in Q1 followed by desktop variants in Q2 2022 while here, both laptops and desktops are showcased. Intel will have more information to share with the public at CES 2022 but till then, you can find all we know about the ARC Alchemist lineup below:

Here's Everything We Know About Intel's ARC Alchemist Graphics Lineup

Intel will have at least three configurations of ARC Alchemist GPUs ready for launch in Q1 2022. These will include two configurations based on the top 512 EU die and one configuration based on the 128 EU die. Although there are more GPU configs that we have seen in leaks, it looks like those may be used in future products though that cannot be confirmed. So let's start with the top-end configuration.

Intel Xe-HPG 512 EU ARC Alchemist Graphics Card

The top Alchemist 512 EU (32 Xe Cores) variant has just one configuration listed so far and that utilizes the full die with 4096 cores, 256-bit bus interface, and up to 16 GB GDDR6 memory featuring a 16 Gbps clock though 18 Gbps cannot be ruled out as per the rumor.

The Alchemist 512 EU chip is expected to measure at around 396mm2 which makes it bigger than the AMD RDNA 2 and NVIDIA Ampere offerings. The Alchemist -512 GPU will come in the BGA-2660 package which measures 37.5mm x 43mm. NVIDIA's Ampere GA104 measures 392mm2 which means that the flagship Alchemist chip is comparable in size while the Navi 22 GPU measures 336mm2 or around 60mm2 less. This isn't the final die size of the chip but it should be very close.

NVIDIA packs in tensor cores and much bigger RT/FP32 cores in its chips while AMD RDNA 2 chips pack a single ray accelerator unit per CU and Infinity Cache. Intel will also have dedicated hardware onboard its Alchemist GPUs for Raytracing & AI-assisted super-sampling tech.

The Xe-HPG Alchemist 512 EU chip is suggested to feature clocks of around 2.2 - 2.5 GHz though we don't know if these are the average clocks or the maximum boost clocks. Let's assume that it's the max clock speed and in that case, the card would deliver up to 18.5 TFLOPs FP32 compute which is  40% more than the RX 6700 XT but 9% lower than the NVIDIA RTX 3070.

Also, it is stated that Intel's initial TDP target was 225-250W but that's been upped to around 275W now. We can expect a 300W variant with dual 8-pin connectors too if Intel wants to push its clocks even further. In either case, we can expect the final model to rock an 8+6 pin connector config, The reference model is also going to look very much like the drone marketing shot Intel put out during the ARC branding reveal. That reference design was leaked a while back by MLID too. There're also talks about a custom lineup being worked upon by Intel's AIB partners.

Intel Xe-HPG 128 EU ARC Alchemist Graphics Card

Then lastly, we have the Intel Xe-HPG Alchemist 128 EU (8 Xe Cores) parts. The top config is once again a full-fat SKU with 1024 cores, a 64-bit bus interface, and up to 8 GB GDDR6 memory. The cut-down variant will come with 96 EUs or 768 cores and a 4 GB GDDR6 memory featured across a 64-bit bus interface. The chip will also feature a clock speed of around 2.2 - 2.5 GHz and have a sub 75W power consumption which means we will be looking at connector-less graphics cards for the entry-level segment.

Performance is expected to land between the GeForce GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 SUPER but with raytracing capabilities. One big advantage that Intel could have over AMD and NVIDIA is that with these cards, they might enter the sub-$250 US market which has been completely abandoned in the current generation of cards. The GeForce RTX 3050 series only got a laptop release so far with RTX 3060 serving the entry-level Ampere segment at $329 US while the RX 6600 is expected to be AMD's entry-level solution for around $300 US.

This GPU will be very similar to the DG1 GPU-based discrete SDV board however Alchemist will have a more improved architecture design and definitely more performance uplift over the first-gen Xe GPU architecture. This lineup is definitely going to be aimed at the entry-level desktop discrete market based on the specifications.

Based on the timeline, the Xe-HPG Alchemist lineup will compete against NVIDIA's Ampere & AMD RDNA 2 GPUs since both companies aren't expected to launch their next-gen parts by the very end of 2022. NVIDIA and AMD are expected to release refreshes in early 2022 so that might give Intel's new lineup some competition but based on current performance expectations, the refreshed may not bring drastic performance differences to the lineup. The Xe-HPG ARC GPUs will also be coming to the mobility platform too and will be featured in Alder Lake-P notebooks.