Intel has finally released its first discrete GPU, the Intel Arc 3 series A which is intended for ultra portable devices.
The highlight of Intel's first discrete GPU is DirectX 12 and hardware support for ray tracing, and -- at least for this series -- only twice the power consumption of the integrated Xe GPU.
The GPU that was released has the A350M series, which has six Xe cores and six ray tracing units, then there is also the A370M which has eight Xe cores and eight ray tracing units.
With power consumption ranging from 25W to 50W, this GPU is clearly aimed at thin and light devices. As for gaming laptops, it seems that the next series is needed, namely Arc 5 and Arc 7, which have more graphics cores, VRAM, and ray tracing units, of course, higher power consumption as well, which are scheduled to be released in early next summer.
Then there is also one feature that was not available at the launch of Arc 3, namely Intel XeSS, which is an AI-based super sampling feature, similar to Nvidia's DLSS. With this feature, gamers can play games at a low resolution, but upscaled to a higher resolution.
Intel claims XeSS is also only available at the beginning of next summer. Meanwhile, the new desktop version of Arc will be released in Q2 2022, while the new workstation-class GPU will be released in Q3.
Finally there is a mysterious service called Project Endgame, which Intel describes as a service where consumers can access Arc GPUs at any time and experience low latency computing, and again will be available in the near future.
With so many new features and products set to be available in the next few months, it seems that Intel is still experimenting with the release of this Arc GPU. Plus, the performance of the Arc that has been released is not yet known. But what is clear is that the existing Intel Arc is faster than the Xe integrated GPU that previously existed.
Compared to the Xe used in the Core i7-1280P, the Arc 3's performance is almost twice as fast in some jobs, with almost the same power consumption as an Intel CPU.
Intel doesn't provide benchmark comparisons between the Arc with competing discrete GPUs from AMD or Nvidia, or even with the integrated GPU in the Apple M1 chip line.
"We are focused on delivering a good experience. And later there will be some benchmarks where we will lose and some benchmarks where we will win," said Roger Chandler, Intel VP and GM of client graphics products and solutions.
This Arc GPU will be available on the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro, which is the first laptop with an Arc 3 GPU option. In the future there will be laptops with similar GPUs from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and so on, with prices starting from USD 899.