When will Intel release Arc Alchemist graphics cards?

A report revealed that Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards may be delayed until next March, after rumors that the global company will launch new graphics processing units in January 2022, while new information has emerged about what the initial Intel group may offer.

Intel may not have shared much about the specifications of the cards, but its marketing material indicates that it plans to release two chips in its Arc Alchemist GPU line.

However, the leaked drivers show that Intel may have up to 32 different cards in the new lineup. How many of those will actually be released at the launch date remains unknown, but a new report from Home IT suggests there might not be much to begin with.

And according to IT Home, Intel may start by releasing two DG2 graphics cards for desktop gaming only. It also appears that Intel may not be looking to compete with the best graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD and will instead target the mid-range segment of the market.

And while that may be true, it appears that Intel is planning to release two graphics cards that rival some of Nvidias RTX 30-series GPUs. 384 EUs and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory.

These two cards may be comparable to Nvidias RTX 3070 (Ti) and RTX 3060 (Ti) In terms of performance, it is unclear whether Intel plans to release cards powerful enough to rival the performance of high-end GPUs such as the RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090 from Nvidia.

However when it comes to gamers interested in 4K gaming, Intel wouldn’t claim any market share without trying to tackle the best GPUs from Nvidia and AMD.

Although Intel has not revealed an official release date for the new graphics cards, many expected to see them in early January, however, if the report from IT Home is correct, Intel may try to avoid direct competition with Nvidia.

The two-month release delay also gives Intel more time to make sure the cards will deliver smooth performance from the start. Nvidia is rumored to be releasing three new graphics cards in January, and given that Intel is only entering the separate GPU market, this will be a tough contender to beat.

Unfortunately, delaying the release of Intel’s new GPUs could also result in lower interest when they come to market in March, provided the new Nvidia products are well accepted.

On the other hand, in times of constant GPU shortages, there is no such thing as too many graphics cards – so the expected delay may not have any negative effects on Intel.

But the report indicated that Intel is likely to announce the official release date for the DG2 Arc Alchemist cards during CES 2022 in January of this year.