Intel has provided more details on the roadmap for the launch of its long-awaited discrete Arc GPUs in a new blog post. The company plans to use a step-by-step approach that will give priority to system manufacturers and OEMs in China when it comes to desktop graphics cards. Meanwhile, laptop chips are currently exclusive to Samsung laptops in South Korea, but hope is soon to expand to other manufacturers and markets.
Intel says it is working with other laptop makers such as Lenovo, Acer, HP and Asus to launch their laptops with their native Arc 3 “ASAP” graphics processors. Laptops with more powerful graphics processors Arc 5 and Arc 7 are planned for the “early summer”. The company said it hoped availability would be “wider” at the time, but blamed software development and supply chain problems for the delay.
Starting with China with its least powerful graphics processors
On the desktop side, Intel sticks to Q2 as its rough launch window. He says his first desktop GPUs will be his entry-level A3, which will initially be available to Chinese system manufacturers and OEMs (so it won’t be available as a ready-to-install component in a self-built machine) before to expand worldwide and to self-builders. Intel plans to release its more powerful Arc A5 and A7 desktop cards later this summer, starting again with professional system developers before expanding.
This is a much more nuanced roadmap than what the company announced in February, when it simply said that GPUs will come with laptops in Q1, desktops in Q2 and workstation machines in Q3. But Intel gives several reasons for this step-by-step approach. First, starting with system builders, he can focus on getting his GPUs to work with a select number of other components, rather than what a home builder might throw at him. And second, the Chinese market clearly has a “strong demand” for these types of entry-level GPUs and is physically closer to the factories that produce PCB components at a time when transportation costs have skyrocketed.
Leaving aside the speculation, the result is that home PC makers in the US and the EU are unlikely to get Intel’s new desktop graphics cards at least until the end of the summer. As Nvidia is expected to release a new series of 4,000 graphics cards later this year, this could mean that Intel’s young GPUs will face stiff competition from a very established player at launch.
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