Intel’s first Arc Alchemist graphics cards will be officially revealed on March 30, in just a few days, and will be followed in short order by the launch of the initial batch of gaming laptops carrying these GPUs.
We’d already been told about the press event on March 30, although now we know the exact timing – 8am PST (which is 3pm GMT) – and a fresh teaser tweet (showing a video of a closed laptop to indicate that these will be laptop graphics cards) was accompanied by an interesting reply from the Intel Support account on Twitter.
Yes! We are about to launch our brand-new Intel Arc graphic solution. The OEM devices featuring Arc GPUs will be launched by the end of this month. You may take a first look at our discrete graphics for laptops on March 30th at 8 AM, PST via https://t.co/rKmNtFEPYFMarch 26, 2022
As you can see, that latter tweet clarifies that this launch is for the first Arc graphics cards, and that “OEM devices featuring Arc GPUs will be launched by the end of this month” (meaning laptops, of course).
So, apparently we’ll get our first look at Alchemist cards on March 30, with multiple notebooks carrying these GPUs being launched at the same time, or the day after.
Analysis: Arc finally launches – but when will we see the big guns?
As VideoCardz, which spotted the tweet, points out, there are several leaks around laptops expected to carry the first Arc GPUs, and these include the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Acer Swift X which have been spotted via retailer listings that jumped the gun.
As for the Alchemist graphics cards revealed, these are expected to be the lower-end laptop models (likely two of them). More powerful gaming laptop GPUs will be in the pipeline, and also coming later will be Intel’s desktop graphics cards which are pencilled in for a Q2 launch. As some of the more cynical online comments point out, maybe the date to mark in your diary is the second-to-last day of June.
Joking aside, the launch date for desktop Alchemist GPUs is still likely to be a fair way down the road – as in at least a couple of months, or that’s what we’ve heard most recently from the rumor mill. Speculation has indicated a May or June launch, and this makes sense given the delays we’ve seen from Team Blue so far.
As we’ve said before, we think it’s sensible for Intel to take its time and get these cards (and graphics driver) right, rather than risk a poor first impression when they go on sale; a perception that might hang over the Arc range for some time thereafter, even after any missteps have been corrected.
