Intel Unveils Arc Brand for Its First Dedicated Gaming Graphics Cards
Intel introduces the Arc branding for its upcoming consumer GPUs, with the first Alchemist models arriving in early 2022 to compete against AMD and NVIDIA.
Intel reveals the Arc brand for its new line of high-performance consumer graphics products. This branding covers both the hardware and software sides of the company's first true gaming GPUs. The first generation of Arc cards, operating under the codename Alchemist, arrives in the first quarter of 2022 for both desktop and laptop computers.
The Alchemist GPUs feature the new Xe-HPG microarchitecture and support advanced technologies like hardware-based ray tracing, mesh shading, and variable rate shading. Intel states that these cards include artificial intelligence-driven super sampling, which functions similarly to NVIDIA's DLSS technology to boost game resolution without overburdening the GPU.
Intel also shares the codenames for future hardware generations, which include Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid. To demonstrate the capabilities of the new Arc graphics tech, the company releases a video showing popular games like Forza Horizon 4, Psychonauts 2, and Metro Exodus running smoothly on the upcoming hardware.