Intel plans go heavy on Arc graphics for gamers — and that's good for you

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Intel is aiming to ship "millions of Arc GPUs" every year

Intel Arc GPU
(Image credit: Intel)

Editor's Note: Intel's first Arc laptop GPUs are available now: Here's what you need to know, and what you can expect from the even beefier models shipping Summer 2022.

Intel plans to produce "millions" of its upcoming Arc GPUs in response to the tricky supply situation in the graphics card market. 

In response to an article from our sibling publication PC Gamer Raja Koduri tweeted that Intel is working hard to "find a path" to produce masses of its first dedicated graphics cards. 

Currently, it's very difficult to find the latest graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD in stock almost anywhere. Take a look at our where to buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 guide, and you can get a taste for how rarer now graphics cards are. This is all thanks to a ongoing chip shortage and sky-high demand. 

But Intel has its own chip foundries and should theoretically be in a better position to produce more of its own GPUs than Nvidia or AMD. As such, if the Arc GPUs can at least be relatively competitive with cards from Team Green and Team Red, then we could see a third player in the GPUs arena help alleviate some of the problems around graphics card supplies.

However, all this is somewhat academic as we still don't know about when the first Alchemist GPUs will arrive on the market. We have a vague idea of the cards launching in the first half this year according to Intel, but there's no concrete official timeline from Intel.

Hopefully, when the cards do arrive we'll be impressed by their performance. Just like the leading GeForce and Radeon cards available right now, the Intel Alchemist card will support ray tracing, AI supersampling, and DirectX 12 Ultimate. Plus there's evidence it's got a decent amount of power, posting benchmark results comparable to the RTX 3070 Ti. While 2021 was an exhausting year for users trying to upgrade their PC GPUs, perhaps the next few quarters of 2022 will bring some much-needed relief.

Richard Priday
Richard Priday
Assistant Phones Editor

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.