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At the end of March 2022, Intel presented its Arc A-Series mobile graphics cards. We raised it then, this launch was not followed by availability and Intel is now postponing the release of the first laptops equipped with Arc to the end of June.
Was Intel really ready when it announced the Arc A-Series, its first generation of consumer graphics cards? The question deserves to be asked at a time when the company has just officially announced the shift to the end of June of the arrival on the market of the first equipped laptops. But before delving deeper into the subject, a brief retrospective is in order.
2017-2021: Intel announces its return to the GPU market
November 2017, Raja Koduri left his position as head of AMD’s graphics division to join Intel. The objective is simple: to breathe a breath of fresh air by laying the foundations for a new graphic architecture. The idea is then to allow Intel to pose as an alternative to AMD and Nvidia in the field of GPUs, both for server-type accelerators and for the general public with graphics cards. gaming.
January 2020, Intel is taking advantage of CES in Las Vegas to present its first graphics card, soberly named Intel DG1 and based on the Xe architecture. A model that is primarily intended for developers and a handful of integrators. The product is definitely entry-level and will absolutely not compete with cards from AMD and Nvidia. This first draft aims above all to allow the brand’s partners to get their hands on the Intel architecture.
August 2021, as gamers grow impatient, Intel finally gets to the heart of the matter. The company draws up the contours of its consumer GPUs, which will take the name of Arc and will therefore rub shoulders with AMD’s Radeon and Nvidia’s GeForce. The tone is also given, the manufacturer then speaking of raytracing, AI super-sampling, and most importantly, window-of-shot. It is then explained that the Arc will arrive on fixed and portable computers in the first quarter of 2022.
2022: a launch on paper
Raja Koduri posing in front of a NUC Beast Canyon equipped with an Arc Alchemist graphics card. The game tomb Raider is compatible with Intel XeSS technology. © Intel
January 2022, Intel is present at CES, but intriguingly, does not take the opportunity to give great indications on its graphics cards. We have just learned that the brand’s partners are beginning to receive Arc chips. The firm is then content to indicate on Twitter that it will be able to mass produce graphics cards, in response to the shortage which has persisted for several months.
February 2022, more or less a month and a half before the deadline, Intel is taking advantage of a conference intended for its investors to provide details on its roadmap. The Arc Alchemist graphics cards are then still planned for the first quarter, but only the mobile versions. The desktop versions are postponed to spring, without further details. Even more worrying, Intel ensures that 4 million Arc GPUs, all sectors combined, will be delivered in 2022. A drop of water in a market where AMD and Nvidia total between 40 and 50 million GPUs annually.
March 2022, one day before the deadline, Intel launches its first generation of mobile graphics cards, the Arc A-Series. Five models are unveiled, ranging from entry-level to premium. The technical characteristics are interesting, the promises on software support enticing, but several points are disappointing. First of all, only the two entry-level Arc 3 versions are really planned for near availability. For the mid-range and high-end Arc 5 and Arc 7, it will be necessary to wait a few months, Intel evoking the beginning of summer at best. However, no very precise indication is given concerning the availability of the first laptops equipped with Arc 3.
Faced with this lack of clarity, Digital had then undertaken to question the manufacturers of portable computers on the subject of the availability. We noticed that they were swimming in a fairly thick fog, obviously having no more precise information to give us. The more talkative will simply tell us not to expect availability before the end of May.
The vagueness remains total on the availability, what desktop versions?
This lack of availability brings its share of questions. Intel has therefore decided to respond to a user questioning it on the subject in a Twitter thread. The company indicates that it will be necessary to wait until the end of the second quarter to get its hands on a portable PC with GPU Arc. But that’s without counting on a back-pedalling carried out only a few hours later. Intel then assures that the Samsung Book2 Pro with Arc 3 graphics card is from this moment available in South Korea – a difficult point to verify, the PC being only offered on the Samsung site and a South Korean telephone number proving necessary to validate the order steps and a delivery date —. An availability that will extend to other countries in an undefined period of time. And to add that the “other OEMs will offer other machines in the coming weeks”.
Hi! Laptops with Intel ARC will be available for purchase by the end of the second quarter of 2022. We suggest you follow our newsroom at https://t.co/AlNpzzMu5P for all the updates.
— Intel Support (@IntelSupport) April 6, 2022
In short, a risky communication for a very relative availability of Arc graphics cards: Intel has clearly carried out what is called a “paper launch” (paper launch), that is to say a launch without real availability of the products behind. This phenomenon is unfortunately neither new nor rare in the field of components. But why have you operated in this way? Without a doubt, it is a question here of stroking in the direction of the hair of the investors who had been promised a launch in the first quarter of 2022. Intel therefore simply did not want to talk about a delay, even if it meant putting aside any material reality on the progress of his project.
Apologies for the confusion, we had incorrect information. Samsung systems with Intel Arc graphics are available now in Korea and will scale to other regions. Additional OEMs in other regions will have systems in the coming weeks.
— Intel Support (@IntelSupport) April 8, 2022
The question now turns to the sequel, in particular the launch of desktop versions for fixed PCs. These graphics cards are expected “before summer”, but the unfolding of events leaves room for doubt as to the mass availability over this period. In short, Intel Arc graphics cards will arrive in gamers’ PCs in the coming weeks or months, that’s obvious. But it is clear that Intel is behind its initial schedule and that this will not necessarily work in its favor if the mass availability were to slip in the fall. AMD like Nvidia have novelties in their boxes for the second half of the year.