Intel announces 'Alchemist' consumer graphics

Intel today announced the Intel Arc, its first consumer-focused high-performance graphics solution.

In the press release, Intel described Arc Graphics as "a convergence of Intel's XE LP, HP and HPC microarchitectures that will deliver scalability and computation efficiency with advanced graphics features" and that the brand will integrate hardware, software, and services will integrate. is included.

The first generation of Intel consumer GPUs will be based on the Xe microarchitecture code-named Alchemist, formerly known as DG2. Intel also announced three future generations of its products: Battlemage, Celestial and Druid.

In one video, Intel demonstrated Alchemist at apparently smoother frame rates for running modern games, though it showed no statistics for these demos. Intel also demonstrated some of Alchemist's advanced features, including ray tracing and variable-rate shading, the former being critical for realistic lighting and the latter improving performance by shading different parts of the frame at different detail levels. . does.

In addition, the press release mentions an AI-powered image upscaling feature that sounds similar to Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's Fidelity FX Super Resolution.

Before its elusive DG1 graphics card and the later Ponte Vecchio HPC GPU, Intel had been developing integrated graphics for its CPUs for years. Its latest graphics microarchitecture, Intel XE, is currently featured in the Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake series of processors.

Nothing else is known about Arc Graphics other than what was shown in a brief demo this morning. Intel says consumers can expect to see Alchemist-based products in Q1 2022.