Intel announced that their upcoming desktop graphics cards, named Arc, will be out some time in Q2 2022. This means that they could begin to launch anywhere from April 2022 to the end of June 2022. Though the desktop GPUs are coming a bit later, laptops equipped with Arc GPUs will begin shipping this quarter.
The Arc cards have been in development for some time now at Intel but were only officially announced in August 2021. At CES earlier this year, Intel was one of the companies that shed more light on their upcoming lineup alongside Nvidia and AMD.
For Intel, Arc isn't a one and done. They plan to be in the GPU business for a while. The company already plans to create multiple generations of GPU hardware and have already created codenames for future generations: Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid.
Intel also plans to include support for what they're calling XeSS, or Xe Super Sampling. This aims to compete with AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and Nvidia's DLSS technologies. One of the first confirmed games to implement XeSS will be Death Stranding Director's Cut.
Also included in today's roadmap blog is a little bit about what Intel is calling "Project Endgame." This looks to be a new cloud-based GPU service that will let users "access Intel Arc GPUs through a service for always-accessible, low-latency computing experience."
It will be very interesting to see what Intel can bring to this market that has been dominated by Nvidia and AMD for years. Even if the first-generation of Arc cards aren't all we had hoped for, the later cards will undoubtedly make big improvements. Competition is a great thing for consumers as far as pricing and innovation are concerned.
