Liveblog: Intel reveal first Arc GPUs, the Arc A-Series for laptops
The first Intel Arc GPUs are finally here, and they are… for laptops. That might not please anyone hoping for relief from ongoing stock woes in the desktop graphics card market, but the mobile Arc A-Series chips are built for gaming all the same – and the first Arc laptops are launching today. That’s all via the livestreamed launch event that finished mere minutes ago, and that you can find liveblogged below.
Specifically, the laptops going on sale today will have one of the two entry-level ‘Arc 3’ models in the range, the Arc A350M and the Arc A370M. The latter was shown running above 60fps at 1080p in various games, including Hitman 3, Apex Legends, and Genshin Impact. It cracked 115fps in Valorant, too. The more powerful GPUs, from the Arc 5 and Arc 7 families, are set to launch this summer; we can expect these to come closer to beefier rival mobile chips like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and AMD Radeon RX 6800S.
A New Player has Entered the Game | Intel Arc Graphics - YouTube Premiere Stream Watch on YouTubeAs for the long-awaited Arc desktop GPUs, those are now due for summer 2022 as well, after missing their earlier Q1 window. No names or specs were given in the mainly laptop GPU-dominated livestream, but it did end with a brief glimpse at a “Special Edition” graphics card from the desktop range. It’s a pretty slick design too, with tapered edges, dual fans and what Patrick Bateman would call a tasteful thickness.
The laptop GPUs were also confirmed to support various features we’re expecting from the desktop cards, including hardware-based ray tracing and XeSS, which is Intel’s take on DLSS-style upscaling. Though it’s hard to say how well XeSS-upscaled games will look versus native resolution, as Intel only chose to compare native 1080p against upscaled 4K. Like, yeah? Of course a game will look better when it’s upscaled to twice the res?
More encouragingly, a bunch of new games were confirmed to get XeSS support, joining early adopter Hitman 3. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Chivalry II, GRID Legends, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, Chorus, Enlisted, Super People, The Settlers and more will work with Intel’s performance-boosting tech. One last caveat, however: XeSS is also launching in the summer, so those Arc 3 laptops will have to go without it for the time being.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
13:05 pm UTC Hello, hardware friends. I'll be manning this here liveblog from 3:30 BST, ready for the Intel Arc event at 4pm. The livestream is embedded above - see you in a bit!– James Archer
14:30 pm UTC Right, let's gooooo. In half an hour.– James Archer
14:33 pm UTC I’ll be honest, I’m kinda hoping this event has more of the Arc desktop GPUs than Intel is letting on. But there’s been a lot of moving and shaking in laptop graphics lately – Nvidia only recently launched the mobile version of the RTX 3080 Ti, and AMD has two new lines of Radeon RX 6000 laptop cards out.– James Archer
14:35 pm UTC Besides, we know from the livestream’s YouTube description that the Arc laptop GPUs will launch first, with the desktop cards “coming later this year”.– James Archer
14:42 pm UTC Speaking of the livestream, looks like there's none of the usual chillstep countdown filler you often get just before tech events start. I'm listening to Touhou music instead.– James Archer
14:47 pm UTC While we wait, here's the Intel XeSS upscaling demo from last August (!) - at the time it looked like the middle ground between the super-smart but hardware-limited Nvidia DLSS, and the more open but less effective AMD FSR. Will have tougher competition now that FSR 2.0 is on the way, mind.– James Archer
14:55 pm UTC 5 minutes to go...– James Archer
15:00 pm UTC The clock striketh the hour, but no livestream yet...– James Archer
15:01 pm UTC Nope wait, there it is. A countdown with 30 seconds, 29, 28...– James Archer
15:02 pm UTC Here we go!– James Archer
15:02 pm UTC Opening with very dramatic shots of video editing and CAD software. THEN the games. Alright– James Archer
15:03 pm UTC Here's Intel VP Roger D. Chandler.– James Archer
15:04 pm UTC 'Intel Arc A-Series' appears to be the name for these laptop GPUs!– James Archer
15:06 pm UTC Arc 3, Arc 5 and Arc 7 are the GPUs. Arc 3 laptops launching today, more powerful Arc 5 and 7 models coming later.– James Archer
15:07 pm UTC Hardware-based ray tracing and XeSS support confirmed for Arc 3, 5 and 7.– James Archer
15:08 pm UTC The entry level GPU is the Intel Arc A350M, with a more powerful Arc A370M joinging it in the range. Promises at least 60fps in some big games, including Hitman 3 and Genshin Impact.– James Archer
15:09 pm UTC Now here's an XeSS demo. Comparing, rather oddly, native 1080p to upscaled 4K...– James Archer
15:10 pm UTC XeSS will launch this summer, so won't be available on the Arc 3 chips at launch. Some more games confirmed to support it though - Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Chivalry II and more.– James Archer
15:11 pm UTC Moving away from games it seems. Showing off AI-based XMX upscaling for videos, which in fairness looks pretty neat.– James Archer
15:12 pm UTC Now here's Matt Frost, chairmain of the Alliance for Open Media (and a project lead at Google), to talk about Arc's Xe media engine.– James Archer
15:14 pm UTC Full support for the new AV1 video codec on Arc. If you're into that sort of thing.– James Archer
15:15 pm UTC Still on AV1 but back on games: showing Elden Ring streaming more smoothly on AV1 than on H.261.– James Archer
15:17 pm UTC New Arc Control software as well - looks like AMD's Radeon Software and/or Nvidia GeForce Experience. Similar features.– James Archer
15:18 pm UTC Doesn't need a login either. Good! GeForce Experience, it's super weird that you still do!– James Archer
15:19 pm UTC Arc laptop manufacturers include Samsung, interestingly. Their first gaming laptop?– James Archer
15:20 pm UTC Reminder that Arc 3 laptops are out now, Arc 5 and Arc 7 chips coming in summer. The desktop Arc cards are coming then too.– James Archer
15:20 pm UTCmattevansc3 says: Did he just say 50 X instead of 50 times?
Yep, this is a thing executives do. It's odd.– James Archer
15:21 pm UTC Oh wow, here's a desktop Arc teaser!– James Archer
15:21 pm UTC ...and that's the end!– James Archer
15:23 pm UTC Here's that desktop graphics card teaser. No name, but looks like a pretty straightforward dual-fan setup.– James Archer
15:26 pm UTC One other thing to mention: the laptop Arc chips will support Intel Deep Link, so if they share a system with compatible Intel CPUs, they can share the load with the CPU's integrated graphics for a little performance boost.– James Archer
15:29 pm UTCmattevansc3 says: So with the comparison being made to Xe in the presentation, I’d the Arc 3 more of a iGPU competitor than say a competitor to a 3050 mobile GPU?
Quite possibly, though the mobile 3050 isn't particularly powerful itself...– James Archer
15:32 pm UTC To recap: first laptop GPUs are the Arc A-Series. Two Arc 3 GPUs in laptops available to order now, faster Arc 5 and Arc 7 models coming this summer. Full ray tracing and XeSS upscaling support across the range, and a few extras for video encoding and creative work.– James Archer
15:34 pm UTC Am trying to find a Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro, the only named Arc 3 laptop in the show, on sale. No luck yet!– James Archer
15:37 pm UTC Also, correction: it was the Arc A370M, not the Arc A350M, that was shown doing 60fps+ on a few different games. That was at 1080p, naturally.– James Archer
15:43 pm UTC Think we'll call it there folks, turned out to be a quick one but cheers for tuning in!– James Archer
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