Intel is shipping Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs to major OEMs, ahead of the discrete graphics chips' wider release sometime in the coming year. Confirmed over at CES 2022, this latest development is certainly promising for an Alchemist release this side of summer, as it means Intel has silicon in its pocket that's ready to go.
Intel's been teasing its discrete Arc GPUs for a while now, and the first chips out of the gate will be known as Alchemist. These were initially pegged for a late 2021 release, but that later shifted into 2022. As CES 2022 has rolled around, we've finally heard a little more on what's going on for Intel's graphics and gaming push.
"Intel marked a new era in the discrete graphics market by announcing shipment of Intel Arc graphics (codename Alchemist) to OEM customers," the press release says. "Intel Arc is the brand for Intel's upcoming consumer high performance graphics product, and delivers new choice to the industry, including many all-Intel discrete graphics platforms. With more than 50 new mobile and desktop customer designs announced with Intel Arc graphics, including with Acer, ASUS, Clevo, Dell, Gigabyte, Haier, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, MSI and NEC, it is an exciting time for gamers and creators around the world."
So there you have it, both desktop and mobile parts are on the way from the usual names and faces, and in seemingly good time too. Hopefully Intel's right with the exciting bit, too, as we could really do with some disruption to the GPU market right now, not just for more performance but ideally more availability.
Though that said TSMC is manufacturing Intel's maiden discrete GPUs, and that means the company isn't totally immune to any shortages or increased demand that company may be facing at that time. It probably wouldn't matter much if Intel were producing Alchemist GPUs itself though, as no one is safe from the ongoing semiconductor shortage.
Alongside the Intel Arc announcement, Intel confirms previously rumoured reports of Death Stranding Director's Cut coming to PC, once again out of 505 Games. There's a reason why these two announcements have been bundled together, though, and that's because Death Stranding Director's Cut on PC will come with Xe Super Sampling (XeSS), Intel's upcoming super sampling technology to rival AMD and Nvidia's current offerings.
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That's all very exciting, too, as Intel has confirmed it will produce both accelerated Xe-only XeSS algorithms and those that will work across most modern GPUs, including competitors'.
2022 is already looking to provide plenty of healthy competition in graphics cards with the arrival of Intel Alchemist, and it's only January 4, but perhaps more so a fierce contest in upscalers could really be to the benefit of all PC gamers this year.
Let's hope both Intel Arc and XeSS can deliver something worth shouting about, or just something in these silicon starved times. According to early leaks, the entry-level Arc A380 (not the Airbus) will sit around Nvidia's GTX 1650 Super in terms of performance, and by now that's likely locked in for launch.
