Intel’s Arc GPUs were unveiled today for laptops, but the company hasn’t forgotten about its much-anticipated return to desktop graphics cards: the company showed off a first look at the final Arc hardware, as well as the announcement that the first GPUs will be available this summer in a “limited edition” release.
The much-anticipated Arc GPUs were released today, but not in the way you may think. Rather than making its debut on a desktop, Arc makes its premiere on laptops, which can demonstrate some of the enticingly tasty benefits Intel can give in tuned systems based on its Core CPUs and Arc GPUs.
Intel’s Arc GPU Shows Promise
Intel unveiled its Arc A-series mobile GPUs today, with just the most basic variants—the Arc 3 series—available. Laptops featuring the A350M and A370M will be available for presale starting today, with pricing starting at $899. Over the following several months, more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 laptops will be available. Intel’s new Xe HPG graphics architecture will power all Arc GPUs.
Beyond a brief peek of the hardware, the business hasn’t revealed much about the desktop Arc cards, though additional information is expected before the summer.
The Arc card does look to have a dual-fan design, as well as a single HDMI port and three DisplayPort connections on the side, however, the specs for those connectors are unclear based on appearance alone. The new Arc card is also referred to as a “limited edition” by Intel. However, it’s unclear whether this implies the firm will only have a limited number of cards available when they launch this summer or whether it’s a designation for its GPUs (akin to Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition branding).
The desktop Arc GPUs will be joined by Intel’s more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 laptop GPUs, as well as its XeSS AI-based super-sampling, in “early summer.”
