by Intel has provided more details on the launch roadmap for its long-awaited discrete Arc GPUs in a new blog post. The company plans to use a tiered approach, which will prioritize system builders and OEMs in China when it comes to its desktop graphics cards. Meanwhile, its laptop chips are currently exclusive to Samsung laptops. in South Koreabut the hope is to soon expand to other manufacturers and markets.
Intel says it’s working with other laptop makers like Lenovo, Acer, HP, and Asus to release their laptops with their entry-level Arc 3 GPUs “as soon as possible.” Laptops with the more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 GPUs are planned for “early summer.” The company says it expected availability to be “wider” at this point, but blamed software development and supply chain issues for the delay.
On the desktop side, Intel is sticking to Q2 as its approximate release window. It says its first desktop GPUs will be its entry-level A3, available initially to Chinese system builders and OEMs (so it won’t be available as an off-the-shelf component to drop into a home-built machine). ) before expanding worldwide and to self-builders. “Later this summer,” Intel plans to release its more powerful Arc A5 and A7 desktop cards, again starting with professional system builders before expanding.
It’s a much more nuanced roadmap than what the company announced in february when he simply said that GPUs would come to laptops in Q1, desktops in Q2, and workstations in Q3. But Intel gives a couple of reasons for this staggered approach. First, when starting with system builders, you can focus on making your GPUs work with a select number of other components, rather than anything a home builder might offer you. And second, the Chinese market apparently has “strong demand” for these types of entry-level GPUs, and is physically closer to the factories that make the components for the boards at a time when transportation costs are rising. they have fired
Reasoning aside, the bottom line is that home PC makers in the US and EU probably won’t get their hands on Intel’s new desktop graphics cards until at least the end of the summer. With Nvidia expected to launch a new 4000 series of graphics cards later this year, that could mean Intel’s fledgling GPUs will face stiff competition from a very established player at launch.
