Intel Alchemist
Similar to the CPU market which is dominated by Intel and AMD, the GPU sector only has two major players, Nvidia and AMD — until now. Intel, a household name that’s been around since the dawn of the personal computer, is set to take on both Nvidia and AMD in a welcome move that will hopefully shake up the market. From what I can gather the first Intel discrete graphics cards are set to be released in the first quarter of 2022 under the Intel Arc name with the GPU chip codenamed Alchemist.
The new GPU is rumoured to be in direct competition with Nvidia’s RTX 3070, complete with Ray Tracing, so Intel really has its work cut out as this is a huge mountain to climb.
There’s a huge amount of speculation flying around at the moment, but the general consensus seems to be that Intel needs to hit the ground running with aggressive prices and performance. The current top tier cards, RTX 3070 and RX 6800 XT which Intel will need to compete with are well above mid-range cards, but it is a sector they will need to aim for.
I for one am looking forward to another player entering the GPU market and judging from just the limited amount of forthcoming information from Intel, we can expect to see the first examples during the first three months of 2022.
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Thanks for the info Mark and most interesting. Having a third player enter the Market especially with a budget the size of Intel’s can only be a good thing. I was waiting for the new Nvidia/AMD card prices to come down but there was never any sign of it and over months increased availability never got any better so in the end I bit the bullet, mortgaged my house, sold a kidney and introduced my grandmother to prostitution so I could finally build a brand new PC and get a 3070 to replace my 2070 to fly my beloved helicopters at high frame rates in Xplane.
Super happy with the huge increase in frame rates and I have even stopped looking at the frame rate counter. Even more satisfying in a smug and selfish way is that I had only had the 3070 a few weeks and the price jumped $300 AUD from the supplier for the very same card !
I just hope Intel are seriously serious and give the two incumbents a good smack. I agree they need to be competing in the 3070 end space and above, not the 3060.
Meanwhile I am happily enjoying my new but outrageously priced card. Only downside is that I have to put up with a few tears and sniffles from Grandma occasionally but those are hard to hear over the sound of my rotor blades through my speakers !