Intel Arc Desktop Graphics Cards To Launch Between August & September

Intel’s Arc graphics cards have been the main discussion of this weekend in the rumor mill and now we have more info coming in from Igor’s Labs. According to Igor Wallossek, who managed to obtain an updated Arc schedule, the lineup would see a gradual launch starting from the 5th of August till the 29th of September.

Intel’s Arc Desktop Graphics Card Are Coming! Launching Between August & September To Meet Summer 2022 Deadline

This would be the third launch schedule that we have heard this weekend regarding Intel’s Arc line of desktop graphics cards. The first came from Moore’s Law is Dead in a rumor which was turned down by Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, and VP of Graphics, Raja Koduri with both confirming that Arc is still very much on track for a Q3 2022 launch and now we have Igor’s Labs confirming this as well.

If they’re going to stick to the current timeframe, the range that’s being colocated to me now is between Aug. 05, 2022 and Sept. 29, 2022. This means that there is enough time to launch the three announced larger models one slice at a time. It is interesting that the internal documents no longer report about a large-scale, joint launch event, but it could rather be a kind of “silent” launch, which could be carried out gradually in the retail sector and via only a few media.

via Igor’s Labs

The launch is said to take place gradually and we may even see each card become available in retail one by one rather than all being launched at once. If you look at Intel’s marketing strategy, they are doing this already. The Intel Arc A380 launched first and then Intel started talking about their high-end Arc A750 Limited Edition graphics card followed by the Arc A770 Limited Edition.

The company is also said to give select media the opportunity to review these cards ahead of the launch but whether these media only include tech YouTubers or written media outlets remains to be seen. The exclusive reviews will only be based on Intel’s own Arc reference designs while AIBs models will have no such restrictions but the rest would also have to wait longer considering that we have already seen one AIB, limited to China, release its cards weeks after launch to DIY and all reviewers who tested it had to purchase the product rather than Intel sending them out one by themselves for reviews.

We are very much committed to our roadmap. We are ramping Alchemist and will continue to improve the experience. You will see more updates from us this quarter. AXG is also on track to ramp 4 new product lines by the end of the year.

Intel Vice President of Accelerated Computing Systems & Graphics (AXG), Raja Koduri

Our software release on our discrete graphics was clearly underperforming,” said Gelsinger. “We thought that we would be able to leverage the integrated graphics software stack, and it was wholly inadequate for the performance levels, gaming compatibility, etc. that we needed. So we are not hitting our four million unit goal in the discrete graphics space, even as we are now catching up and getting better software releases.

While we will not hit our GPU unit target, we remain on track to deliver over $1 billion in revenue this year.

In Q2, we started to ramp Intel Arc graphics for laptops with OEMs, including Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, HP, and Asus. COVID-related supply chain issues and our own software-readiness challenges caused availability delays that we continue to work to overcome. Intel Arc A5 and A7 desktop cards will start to ship in Q3.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger

In addition to this, the primary reason why Intel is not doing a massive global launch but rather relying on a gradual rollout between August and September still has to do with the blue team’s readiness in terms of drivers and support. Chipzilla wants to assure that Arc is ready for users & only then will it ship the products globally.

Intel Arc A-Series Desktop Graphics Card Lineup ‘Rumored’: