Intel Arc
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| Common manufacturers | TSMC |
|---|---|
| Design firm | Intel |
| Manufacturer | Intel |
| Introduced | March 30, 2022[1] |
| Type | Consumer graphics cards |
Intel Arc[2][3] is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Intel. These are discrete GPUs mostly marketed for the high-margin PC gaming market. The brand also covers Intel's consumer graphics software and services.
Intel Arc is set to compete with Nvidia's GeForce and AMD's Radeon lines.[4] The Arc-A series for laptops was launched on March 30, 2022, with the Arc 5 and 7 "set to arrive later this year in 'early summer.' "[5][6] Intel missed their initial Q2 2022 release target, with most discrete Arc GPUs not launching until October 2022.[7]
Intel officially launched the Arc Pro workstation GPUs on August 8, 2022.[8][9]
Etymology
According to Intel, the brand is named after the concept of story arcs found in video games.[10] Each generation of Arc is named after each letter of the Latin alphabet in ascending order, beginning with A, then B, then C, and so on. The first generation is named Alchemist, while Battlemage, Celestial and Druid are the respective names for the second, third and fourth Arc generations.[11]
Graphics processor generations
Alchemist
Developed under the previous codename "DG2", the first generation of Intel Arc GPUs (codenamed "Alchemist") released on March 30, 2022.[1][12] It will come in both add-on desktop card and laptop form factors. TSMC manufactures the die, using their N6 process.[13]
Alchemist uses the Intel Xe GPU architecture, or more specifically, the Xe-HPG variant. Alchemist will support hardware-based ray tracing, XeSS or supersampling based on neural networks (similar to Nvidia's DLSS), and DirectX 12 Ultimate.[1][14] Also supported is DisplayPort 2.0 and overclocking. AV1 fixed-function hardware encoder is included in Alchemist GPUs as part of the Intel Quick Sync Video core.[15]
Intel confirmed ASTC support has been removed from hardware starting with Alchemist and future Intel Arc GPU microarchitectures will also not support it.[16]
Intel revealed that Meteor Lake and later generations of CPU SoCs will use Intel Arc Tile GPU.[17][18]
Intel Arc Alchemist does not support SR-IOV.[19] Intel Arc Alchemist does not support Direct3D 9 natively, instead falling back on the D3D9On12 wrapper which translates Direct3D 9 calls to their Direct3D 12 equivalents.[20][21]
Intel Arc support OpenCL 3.0 for example, this GPU can work in the grid World Community Grid.[22]
Desktop
| Branding and Model[23] | Launch | MSRP (USD) |
Code name | Process | Transistors (billion) | Die size (mm2) |
Core config [a] | L2 cache | Clock rate (MHz)[b] |
Fillrate | Memory | Processing power (TFLOPS) | TDP | Bus interface | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixel (GP/s) |
Texture (GT/s) |
Type | Size (GB) | Bandwidth (GB/s) |
Bus width | Clock (MT/s) |
Half precision (base) |
Single precision (base) |
Double precision (base) | |||||||||||||
| Arc 3 | A310 | Sep 28, 2022 | $110 | ACM-G11 (DG2-128) |
TSMC N6 |
7.2 | 157 | 6 Xe cores 768:32:16:6 (192:96:2) |
4 MB | 2000 2000 |
32 | 64 | GDDR6 | 4 GB | 124 | 64-bit | 15500 | 6.144 | 3.072 | 0.768 | 75 W | PCIe 4.0 x8 |
| A380 | Jun 14, 2022 | $139 | 8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (256:128:2) |
2000 2050 |
64 65.6 |
128 131.2 |
6 GB | 186 | 96-bit | 8.192 8.3968 |
4.096 4.1984 |
1.024 1.0496 | ||||||||||
| Arc 5 | A580 | Oct 10, 2023 | $179 | ACM-G10 (DG2-512) |
21.7 | 406 | 24 Xe cores 3072:192:96:24 (768:384:6) |
8 MB | 1700 1700 |
163.2 | 326.4 | 8 GB | 512 | 256-bit | 16000 | 20.890 | 10.445 | 2.611 | 175 W | PCIe 4.0 x16 | ||
| Arc 7 | A750 | Oct 14, 2022 | $289 | 28 Xe cores 3584:224:112:28 (896:448:7) |
16 MB | 2050 2400 |
229.6 268.8 |
393.6 460.8 |
29.3888 34.4064 |
14.6944 17.2032 |
3.6736 4.3008 |
225 W | ||||||||||
| A770 8GB | $329 | 32 Xe cores 4096:256:128:32 (1024:512:8) |
2100 2400 |
268.8 307.2 |
537.6 614.4 |
34.4064 39.3216 |
17.2032 19.6608 |
4.3008 4.9152 | ||||||||||||||
| A770 16GB | $349 | 16 GB | 560 | 17500 | ||||||||||||||||||
Mobile
| Branding and Model[24] | Launch | Code name | Process | Transistors (billion) | Die size (mm2) |
Core config[a][b] | L2 cache |
Core clock (MHz)[c] |
Fillrate[d] | Memory | Processing power (TFLOPS) | TDP | Bus interface | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixel (GP/s) |
Texture (GT/s) |
Type | Size | Bandwidth (GB/s) |
Bus width | Clock (MT/s) |
Half precision |
Single precision |
Double precision | ||||||||||||
| Arc 3 | A350M | Mar 30, 2022 | ACM-G11 (DG2-128) |
TSMC N6 |
7.2 | 157 | 6 Xe cores 768:48:24:6 (96:96:2) |
4 MB | 1150 2200 |
27.6 52.8 |
55.2 105.6 |
GDDR6 | 4 GB | 112 | 64-bit | 14000 | 3.5328 6.7584 |
1.7664 3.3792 |
0.4416 0.8448 |
25–35 W | PCIe 4.0 ×8 |
| A370M | 8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (128:128:2) |
1550 2050 |
49.6 65.6 |
99.2 131.2 |
6.3488 8.3968 |
3.1744 4.1984 |
0.7936 1.0496 |
35–50 W | |||||||||||||
| Arc 5 | A530M | Q3 2023 | ACM-G12 (DG2-256) |
12 Xe cores 1536:96:48:12 (192:192:3) |
8 MB | 1300 | 4 GB 8 GB |
224 | 128-bit | 65–95 W | |||||||||||
| A550M | Q2 2022 | ACM-G10 (DG2-512) |
21.7 | 406 | 16 Xe cores 2048:128:64:16 (256:256:4) |
900 1700 |
57.6 108.8 |
115.2 217.6 |
8 GB | 7.3728 13.9264 |
3.6864 6.9632 |
0.9216 1.7408 |
60–80 W | ||||||||
| A570M | Q3 2023 | ACM-G12 (DG2-256) |
1300 | 75–95 W | |||||||||||||||||
| Arc 7 | A730M | Q2 2022 | ACM-G10 (DG2-512) |
21.7 | 406 | 24 Xe cores 3072:192:96:24 (384:384:6) |
12 MB | 1100 2050 |
105.6 196.8 |
211.2 393.6 |
12 GB | 336 | 192-bit | 13.5168 25.1904 |
6.7584 12.5952 |
1.6896 3.1488 |
80–120 W | PCIe 4.0 ×16 | |||
| A770M | 32 Xe cores 4096:256:128:32 (512:512:8) |
16 MB | 1650 2050 |
211.2 262.4 |
422.4 524.8 |
16 GB | 512 | 256-bit | 16000 | 27.0336 33.5872 |
13.5168 16.7936 |
3.3792 4.1984 |
120–150 W | ||||||||
- ^ Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
(tensor cores (XMX): execution units: render slices) - ^ Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
- ^ Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
- ^ Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.
Workstation
| Branding and Model[25] | Launch | Code name | Process | Transistors (billion) | Die size (mm2) |
Core config[a] | L2 cache |
Core clock (MHz)[b] |
Fillrate[c][d] | Memory | Processing power (TFLOPS) | TDP | Bus interface | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pixel (GP/s) |
Texture (GT/s) |
Type | Size | Bandwidth (GB/s) |
Bus width | Clock (MT/s) |
Half precision |
Single precision |
Double precision | ||||||||||||
| Arc Pro | A30M (Mobile) |
Aug 8, 2022 | ACM-G11 (DG2-128) |
TSMC N6 |
7.2 | 157 | 8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (128:128:2) |
4 MB | 1550 | GDDR6 | 4 GB | 112 | 64-bit | 14000 | 4.20[25] |
50 W | PCIe 4.0 x8 | ||||
| A40 | 6 GB | 192 | 96-bit | 16000 | 5.02[25] |
||||||||||||||||
| A50 | 2050 | 75 W | |||||||||||||||||||
| A60M (Mobile) |
June 6, 2023 | ACM-G12 (DG2-256) |
16 Xe cores 2048:128:64:16 (256:256:4) |
1300 | 8 GB | 256 | 128-bit | 9.42[25] |
95 W | PCIe 4.0 x16 | |||||||||||
| A60 | 12 GB | 384 | 192-bit | 10.04[25] |
130 W | ||||||||||||||||
- ^ Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
(tensor cores (XMX): execution Units: render slices) - ^ Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
- ^ Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.
- ^ Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
Future generations
Intel also revealed future generations of Intel Arc GPUs under development:[3][6] Battlemage (based on Xe2), Celestial (based on Xe3), and Druid. Battlemage will succeed Alchemist.
Intel revealed that Lunar Lake and later generations of CPU SoCs will use Intel Arc Tile GPU.[17]
Intel XeSS
Intel XeSS is a real-time deep learning image upsampling technology developed primarily for use in video games as a competitor to Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR technologies. Additionally, XeSS is not restricted to Intel Arc graphics cards. It does utilize XMX instructions exclusive to Intel Arc graphics cards, but will fall back to utilizing DP4a instructions on competing GPUs that have support for DP4a instructions. XeSS is trained with 64 samples per pixel as opposed to Nvidia DLSS's 16 samples per pixel (16K reference images).[26][27]
Quality Presets
| Quality Preset[a] | Scale Factor[b] | Render Scale[c] |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra Quality | 1.30x | 77.0% |
| Quality | 1.50x | 66.6% |
| Balanced | 1.70x | 58.8% |
| Performance | 2.00x | 50.0% |
| Ultra Performance | 3.00x | 33.3% |
- ^ The algorithm does not necessarily need to be implemented using these presets; it is possible for the implementer to define custom input and output resolutions.
- ^ The linear scale factor used for upsampling the input resolution to the output resolution. For example, a scene rendered at 540p with a 2.00x scale factor would have an output resolution of 1080p.
- ^ The linear render scale, compared to the output resolution, that the technology uses to render scenes internally before upsampling. For example, a 1080p scene with a 50% render scale would have an internal resolution of 540p.
References
- ^ a b c "A New Stage of the Game". Intel. Archived from the original on March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
- ^ "Intel Arc Graphics – Let's Play". Intel. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ a b Smith, Ryan (August 16, 2021). "Intel Video Cards Get a Brand Name: Arc, Starting with "Alchemist" in Q1 2022". AnandTech. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ Warren, Tom (August 16, 2021). "Intel enters the PC gaming GPU battle with Arc". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (March 30, 2022). "Intel's first Arc GPUs are now available for laptops". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
- ^ a b "Intel Introduces New High-Performance Graphics Brand: Intel Arc". Intel. Archived from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ Szewczyk, Chris (May 9, 2022). "Intel Arc desktop cards face more delays". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ "Intel Unveils Arc Pro GPU Products". Intel. August 8, 2022. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "Intel® Arc™ Pro A-Series Graphics for Workstations". Intel. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Ung, Gordon (August 19, 2021). "Intel's Arc gaming GPU: Price, specs and availability". PCWorld. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ "Intel Introduces New High-Performance Graphics Brand: Intel Arc". Intel Newsroom. August 16, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
- ^ Rutherford, Sam (August 16, 2021). "Intel Names New Brand of GPUs That Will Hit Shelves Next Year". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ Cunningham, Andrew (August 20, 2021). "Intel provides more details on its Arc GPUs, which will be made by TSMC". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- ^ "Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics Gaming API Guide". Intel. Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Szewczyk, Chris (April 4, 2022). "Intel Arc GPUs will support AV1 encode and decode". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "intel: ASTC support was removed on Gfx12.5 (!13206) · Merge requests · Mesa / mesa · GitLab". GitLab. Archived from the original on October 7, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ a b Smith, Ryan (February 17, 2022). "Intel Meteor Lake Client Processors to use Arc Graphics Chiplets". AnandTech. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
- ^ Sripada, Radhakrishna (July 7, 2022). "[Intel-gfx] [PATCH 0/2] i915: Introduce Meteorlake". Free Desktop. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "Graphics Virtualization Technologies Supported on Each Intel®". Intel. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "Which Intel® Graphics Products Support DirectX 9* (DX9)?". Intel. Archived from the original on August 27, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Killian, Zak (August 15, 2022). "Intel Xe And Arc Graphics Lack DX9 Support Forcing DX12 Emulation". HotHardware. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
- ^ "Help". World Community Grid. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "Intel Arc Graphics". Intel. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ "Intel Arc Graphics". Intel.
- ^ a b c d e "Intel® Arc™ Pro A-Series Graphics". Intel.
- ^ Solca, Bogdan (August 8, 2022). "More details on Intel's AI-based Xe SuperSampling tech launching with the ARC GPUs revealed by principal engineer". NotebookCheck. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ "Intel® Iris® Xe MAX Graphics Open Source Programmer's Reference Manual For the 2020 Discrete GPU formerly named "DG1" Volume 11: Media Engines February 2021, Revision 1.0" (PDF). Intel. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ Mujtaba, Hassan (March 24, 2022). "Intel Showcases Arc Alchemist GPU Performance With XeSS & Raytracing Enabled, Calls XeSS Better Than Temporal Upscaling". Wccftech. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.