Intel, after much announcement and talk about its graphics platform over the past year, has officially announced the first two graphics chips models in the Arc A series designed for laptops and dedicated expansion cards.
The first cards it offers are the A350M for ultra-thin computers and the A370M for extra performance on thin and light computers. Later this year it will launch mobile products based on Arc 5 and Arc 7. Along with them it will also launch X technologyeHer SS – R.T. of Xe Super Sampling – which according to the company will improve the display resolution and will be used to offer higher level gameplay: for example, allow the game to run in 4K resolution with performance equivalent to running at 1080p resolution originally. This technology will be available for all Arc A chips, and at launch it will have support for 20 games and more. The chips will also support DirectX 12 Ultimate, variable rate shading and more.
All new chips in the Arc A series are based on X corese HPG news that offers improved performance against the X corese LP on which the graphics chips built into Alder Lake processors are based. Along with them it also offers support for Xe Media Engine which is Intel’s most comprehensive set of compatibility for video decoders and encoders.
This includes, for the first time ever, support for accelerating AV1 using hardware so that it will be up to 50% more efficient than the most explosive coding today, H.264, and 30% more efficient than H.265. The chips also support XMX AI technology that offers improved capability for artificial intelligence performance.
As mentioned, Intel is currently launching the first two expansion chips: the Arc A350M with 6 Xe cores and 6 beam tracking units, and the Arc A370M with 8 Xe cores and with 8 beam tracking units. Both chips will come with 4GB of display memory. According to Intel, they will be embedded in thin and light mobiles that cost the user should be about $ 899.
The significant leap forward will come in the summer as mentioned, so it will also launch its first expansion card for desktops – and in fact will open the most significant front in front of the traditional players in the market, NVIDIA and AMD. At the level of the Arc 5 and Arc 7 laptops, as can be seen in the table, they will provide several times improved performance compared to the first generation of Arc 3.
The first computer with an Arc, which should already be available for order, is Samsung’s Galaxy Book 2 Pro with an OLED screen. A reversible computer from the Lenovo Yoga family, an Acer Swift X computer in an Evo-compatible design with a thin and lightweight case made entirely of metal are also expected soon, and HP will also offer a reversible laptop with a 16-inch screen in the form of Specter x360.