Arc Alchemist: Intel takes stock of its technology and first targets gaming laptops


Nerces

Hardware and Gaming Specialist

March 30, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.

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Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

© Intel

This time, Intel’s return to the market for Graphic card is no longer a pipe dream: A350M and A370M are already available.

Things promised, things due, says the proverb. In the case of Intel, this is not quite the case. Indeed, while we were waiting for news of the Arc Alchemist range as a whole, the American focused entirely on mobile GPUs. The sequel will come later.

Four mobile GPUs between April and this summer

Through a long presentation, Intel lifted the veil on its ambitions in terms of laptops for video games. It’s just the foundation stone for the Arc Alchemist edifice, but Intel seems confident.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

The Arc Alchemist range for mobile © Intel

A confidence that raises questions, however, while the founder is also very cautious. Indeed, Intel immediately announced the color: its mobile GPUs will be launched in two bursts.

The first salvo concerns the entry-level whose availability is, in the words of Intel, ” immediate “. These are two GPUs based on the same SoC, the ACM-G11: the A350M and A370M.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel
Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Two SoCs for a range in three segments: Arc 3, Arc 5 and Arc 7 © Intel

In a second step, Intel plans to launch the following three GPUs based on the ACM-G10 SoC. These are the A550M, A730M and A770M. They are intended for summer 2022 », So not before next June.

Xe-Core at the “heart” of the beast

Logically, the A770M is more richly endowed, more complex than the A350M. Distributed by Intel, the table takes stock of everything that opposes these different GPUs. We will come back to the essential elements.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel
Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

The Xe HPG and, at its heart, the famous Xe-Core © Intel

Unsurprisingly, Intel keeps a relatively modest TDP on its entry-level GPUs and allows itself to go much higher with an A770M, which is thus much closer to NVIDIA’s large mobile GPUs.

We note that the GPUs focus on the already famous Xe-Core. We find 8 of them on the A350M, when the A770M has 32. On the technical side, Intel emphasizes four points: XMX matrix engine, the Media engine, the Display engine and the Graphics pipeline.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

XMX Matrix Engine © Intel

Schematically, the first boosts the number of operations performed per second compared to the MAC and DP4a techniques. The Media engine stands out, in particular, in encoding and decoding with support for AV1 in addition to VP9, ​​AVC and HEVC.

More classic, the Display engine obviously takes care of the poster. We’re talking about HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4a here for up to two times 8K @ 60 fps or up to four times 4K @ 120 fps. Finally, for the Graphics pipeline, Intel mainly mentioned DirectX XII Ultimate before moving on to rendering issues.

Intel obviously relies on XeSS

There, and this is all the more true since the American was focusing on its two entry-level GPUs, the support and promotion of XeSS are of particular importance.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

XeSS: super-sampling with Intel sauce © Intel

Xe Super Sampling is the super-sampling technique devised by Intel to compete with AMD and NVIDIA. The principle remains to calculate the image in a lower definition than that displayed and to rely on powerful algorithms to scale it (upscaling).

During its presentation, Intel logically brought in a few demos to show the full potential of its technique, and we recognize that on the action game Dolmenthe result was interesting.

Only ” interesting »? Yes, because Intel has obviously not compared its solution with its main competitors. So we’ll wait to see XeSS compared to NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR (if possible 2.0) before getting excited.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Some games planned to accompany XeSS this summer © Intel

Still, Intel clearly has a card to play and it already seems to have support from the studios. It is still early to do the accounts, but the American mentioned about fifteen compatible games from the summer.

Samsung: a first “EVO design”

Intel then took the time to discuss in more detail what it means by the new “EVO” design. As he was able to do at the time of Centrino, the founder seeks to create a coherent platform which, of course, will be based in part on Arc Alchemist.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Intel presents a small piece of its history, a quarter of a century © Intel

Given the stature of Intel, many partners are already in the ranks, and the American mentioned Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Medion or MSI before emphasizing a particular model, the Galaxy Book2 Pro from Samsung.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel
Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Samsung’s Galaxy Book2 Pro is the laptop highlighted by Intel during its presentation © Intel

We will be careful not to take these figures at face value, but Intel mentions for its platform, which is based on a CPU 12and generation and an Arc Alchemist GPU, an autonomy of more than 9 hours, a 30-minute charge to regain 4 hours of autonomy, an exit from standby ” instant (less than 1 second) and excellent video performance.

Too often overlooked by some market players, the software part was addressed by Intel, which concluded its presentation with Arc Control, a software that recalls NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience in many respects.

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Arc Control is the software interface provided to accompany Arc Alchemist © Intel

On the program: management of graphics drivers, performance optimization through profiles specific to each game, superimposed display system, the easiest way to stream your games and, of course, a community portal to bring all users together. .

Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel
Intel Arc Alchemist © Intel

Performance management and streaming are at the heart of Arc Control © Intel

Apart from the disappointment caused by the fact that Intel did not have a single word for its desktop GPUs, the presentation of the American giant made it possible to put the dots on the “i” and to verify the ambition of the founder. Of course, it will be necessary to judge on parts, but Intel seems to have given itself the means to succeed.

Source: Intel



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