Not only processors live a hardware giant. Intel has brought a new line of graphics cards to notebooks and desktops, and although we still don’t have much information about models other than the Arc A380, a marketing guru from the manufacturer revealed good expectations in an interview with Intel. PCGamer on Wednesday (31).
“We’re not going anywhere,” declared Tom Petersen, responding to public uncertainty about Intel’s graphics processing division. The specialist, who had previously worked with NVIDIA, reaffirms that the “blue team” will maintain its investments in the graphics segment for data centers and the gaming public.
In introducing the “Arc Graphics” brand, Intel also unveiled four generations of consumer graphics cards: Alchemist, Battlemage, Celestial and Druid. Petersen confirmed that the next generation is in development to succeed the current line which, by the way, still hasn’t had all the models available on the market.
As for the “Alchemist” generation, preparations are underway to face off against NVIDIA’s mid-range models. Intel seems to finally be focusing on the software part of the Arc series, citing the DirectX12 and Vulkan APIs as pillars to deliver more performance than the GeForce RTX 30 family graphics cards.
When you have a title that’s optimized for Intel, in the sense that it works well in DirectX12, you’re going to get performance that’s significantly above a [GeForce RTX] 3060. We’re talking about an Arc A750 compared to the 3060, so [teremos vantagens de] 17%, 14%, 10%… This should vary based on the title.
Tom Petersen
Intel Technical Marketing Guru
Petersen points out that the graphics cards will be more friendly priced than their rivals created by NVIDIA, but that advantage is just one reflection of its lower efficiency when compared to GeForce RTX. The guru admits that higher power consumption will be offset by better performance and friendlier values.
The executive adds that Intel’s RTU (Ray Tracing Unit) is better than NVIDIA’s hardware-based ray tracing platform, and combining this factor with a competitive price point suggests that Arc “Alchemist” graphics cards will stand out for the cost. -benefit.
“You will see that when ray tracing with the Arc A750 or A770 compared to the [RTX] 3060, we should do pretty well,” says Petersen. “We are definitely competitive or even better than NVIDIA with hardware-based ray tracing.”
The release date and price of the most advanced desktop graphics cards has not yet been announced, but we know that they should debut any time starting this September. For now, only the Arc A380 is available with a suggested price of US$ 139 (about R$ 729, in direct conversion) in the United States.
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