Intel ARC Alchemist: three gaming GPUs at launch?

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We are almost 3 months away from the launch of Intel ARC Alchemist GPUs. The blues have indeed officially communicated that their GPUs would arrive in the first quarter of 2022 and all observers agree that it is at CES that the announcement will be made.

Intel ARC Alchemist
Intel ARC Alchemist

Between now and then, the news will keep coming. The latest comes from Moore’s Law is Dead, which claims to have new details about the Intel ARC Alchemist line of gaming graphics cards. The new leaks cover the performance and positioning of various GPU versions within the ARC lineup for launch.

3 gaming cards in the core

Intel will have at least three ARC Alchemist GPU configurations ready to launch in Q1 2022. These will include two configurations based on the first 512 EU die and one configuration based on the 128 EU die. From the information Intel has been distilling for months, we can say that there will be many more variations. However, we are talking about 3 cards launched simultaneously at the beginning of the year.

Intel ARC Alchemist

The “top of the range” : First of all, let’s remain cautious about the positioning and performance of what everyone is taking as the future “top of the range” of Intel GPUs. First of all, because more than 3 months before the launch, the performance can change, but also some technical characteristics such as the frequency of the GPU itself or the associated memory. The high-end version of the Alchemist 512 EU would use the full matrix with 4096 cores, a 256-bit bus interface and up to 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with a clock of 16 Gbit/s (we repeat ourselves but higher frequencies are not excluded). The Alchemist 512 EU chip should measure about 396 mm2, for comparison the Ampere GA104 chip measures 392 mm2, while the Navi 22 GPU measures 336 mm2. Many speculations are published about the performance of the card that will have this GPU. They are based on projections of theoretical clock speeds between 2.2 and 2.5 GHz. To make a long story short, this would take us above a current RTX 3070 with still room for improvement. But with 3 months to go before the launch, there is no certainty and no source can claim to have reliable and precise information on the subject. We are on projections only. The “1440P” card: Alchemist 384 GPU would be a “castrated” version of the 512 EU die. The 384 EU chip will feature 3072 cores, up to 12GB of GDDR6 memory and a 192-bit bus interface. But again, other “leaks” mention a 256-bit interface. The card will also have a TDP of around 200W and could offer performance between an NVIDIA RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti. The last one: Finally, we would have an Intel Xe-HPG Alchemist 128 EU GPU. The configuration would include 1024 cores, a 64-bit bus interface and up to 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. A “light” version with 96 EU or 768 cores could be released with 4GB of Vram. The TGP could go down to 5W. On this card, the visibility is much more reduced considering the possibilities of declinations. We could have a version positioned in front of the GTX 1650/1660 but a higher configuration positioned on the same account as AMD with its RX 6600 is possible. You will find here a projection published by Wccftech:

GPU Alchemist list