SiSoftware has put some upcoming Intel Arc Alchemists graphics cards through their paces with OpenCL giving us our first look at what to expect in Q2 2022.
Keep in mind that these are leaked benchmarks and have not been officially unveiled or confirmed by Intel- however, the signs are promising and are certainly in line with rumors circulating since the beginning of the year. First uncovered by Tech Power Up, we now have a rough idea of just how powerful the Intel Arc Alchemist line really could be.
It's looking as though the Intel Arc Alchemist line will be split into three distinct generations: A300 series, A500 series, and A700 series. As with the naming conventions from both AMD and Nvidia, the higher numbers correspond to more powerful hardware, and this can be backed up by the proposed spec list below.
Taking a closer look at the memory bus size here allows us to evaluate the power potential of each Intel Arc Alchemist generation. The A300 Series is the weakest of the three, with a 96-bit memory bus width and GDDR6 6GB VRAM clocked at 14 Gbps.
The A500 Series reportedly features 12GB GDDR6 VRAM with a 192-bit memory bus at 16 Gbps, which would roughly put at a similar power level to Nvidia's RTX 3060, Team Green's previous entry-level Ampere GPU before the RTX 3050 was released. With Nvidia's graphics card in mind, this means that the A500 Series would be targeting high-end 1080p and decent 1440p performance.
A700 Series is looking to be the flagship of the Intel Arc Alchemist GPU line, with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM and a 256-bit memory bus clocked at 16 Gbps. Our closest possible comparison at this point in time would be the RTX 3070 and the RX 6800. This leak is consistent with previous reports that the Intel Arc Alchemist could be as powerful as the RTX 3070 Ti.
What can we expect from the Intel Arc A-series?
The Intel Arc Alchemist line of dedicated GPUs has a lot of promise and aligns with current market expectations for both entry-level and mid-tier PC gaming. It's ultimately going to come down to the pricing and availability of the A300, A500, and A700 series, should that be their official delegations.
We already know that Intel hopes to ship millions of Arc Alchemist GPUs to consumers every year, so if availability is not the issue then aggressive pricing is going to be its way in.
This means that the A300 line is going to need to launch around the $200 mark to be competitive in today's market. The same is true with the A500 series, with the power equivalence of the RTX 3060, meaning it could launch around the $300 range.
We think that the A700 Series, with performance looking to be on par with the RTX 3070 / RTX 3070 Ti, is going to be the most popular out of the entire line when the standalone GPUs launch in Q2 2022. We're estimating that this line would start at around $500, based on current market expectations, but whether or not Intel can live up to its lofty claims remains to be seen.
It's currently unknown whether Intel Arc GPUs will go down as some of the best graphics cards, but you're sure to find them inside the best gaming laptops and best gaming PCs sooner rather than later. What's more, ensure your system's ready for Arc for the best CPU for gaming and best RAM for gaming on the market now.
