Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is shutting down rumors that Intel is closing its GPU development. In a tweet, Gelsinger wrote that he has received his own personal A770 from Intel graphics head Raja Koduri and that the company is "now getting [the] first batch of A770 cards ready for retail[.]"
(Click "See more" below to expand the tweet.)
Got a surprise delivery on a rainy Sunday evening from @RajaXG – an Intel Arc A770. We are now getting first batch of A770 cards ready for retail …excited! pic.twitter.com/r75BASxLtFSeptember 19, 2022
Once the A770 hits the market, it will mark an important step for Intel. The company has shipped mobile Arc GPUs in laptops, though they're only in a few models. The Arc 380 shipped first in China, and it was plagued with driver issues and faced poor reviews.
This led to rumors that Intel would drop GPUs on the back of news that Intel may exit more businesses in 2023. Last week, Koduri shrugged off the scuttlebut, and now Gelsinger is promising the A770 will ship.
What's not clear is where the A770 will ship. The A380 was only in China, and we haven't heard whether or not the A770, the first card Intel will ship with gamers in mind, will follow suit, or whether Intel will bring its Alchemist GPUs to the United States, Europe, and other international markets. That should be the plan, but is it still the plan?
Intel also doesn't have the best timing here. When Intel announced it was getting serious about GPUs, we were in the middle of a massive component shortage that made a third competitor in the space seem like a necessity. Getting one of the best graphics cards meant constantly refreshing online stores or waiting outside of brick and mortar retailers to avoid paying scalpers.
Pat wanted to know how many displays he connect to this card - 4x4K or 2x8K https://t.co/H9CvbF2p6Y pic.twitter.com/nhHUCXidm9September 19, 2022
This tweet comes as GPU prices from Nvidia and AMD are normalizing, often dropping below the suggested retail price as mining operations that focused on Ethereum are unloading their cards following the Merge. Furthermore, Nvidia is expected to announce at least some of the RTX 40-series graphics cards tomorrow during the fall GTC 2022 keynote.
Still, more competition in the space could be good. Intel has previously suggested the Arc A770 delivers stronger ray tracing performance than a GeForce RTX 3060 at 1080p on ultra settings. Combined with Intel's XeSS upscaling, it seems Intel won't be competing at the top-end, but may be able to balance between price and performance in the middle of the pack.
