Yesterday Intel announced they will be launching their first desktop GPU devices in Q1 2022 under a new brand known as Intel Arc. This is the first time in 20 years that Intel has released a dGPU aimed at consumers and puts them directly in competition against both AMD and Nvidia. The codename for their first product, previously known as DG2, is now under the codename “Alchemist”

Here’s a sneak peek of pre-production Intel Arc graphics in action. https://t.co/VOMsMN6r2y #IntelArc pic.twitter.com/b9fOsXdRCq

— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) August 16, 2021

Intel Arc GPUs will be able to use mesh shading, variable rate shading, video upscaling and real-time ray tracing. However, the biggest nes is that Intel will be using AI-accelerated super sampling. The phrasing of this is similar to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling and also AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution technology.

Roger Chandler, head of Intel’s client GPU buisness says that “The launch of the Intel Arc brand and the reveal of future hardware generations signifies Intel’s deep and continued commitment to gamers and creators everywhere, we have teams doing incredible work to ensure we deliver first-class and frictionless experiences when these products are available early next year.”

However, there is also some potentially bad news for those who are running an AMD based system as these discrete GPUs won’t work with AMD systems as they require a special BIOS update for them to work. I say potentially as we don’t yet know whether these devices will be competitive with the latest GPU’s from both Nvidia and AMD.