Just ahead of the weekend, PC Gamer tweeted a plea to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger for some help to solve the "nightmarish GPU crisis." On Saturday, the Intel Graphics boss Raja M. Koduri replied that Intel is aware of the issue and is working on releasing "millions of Arc GPUs" every year. Those were comforting words for some, but on Sunday, it is apparent the message had reached the very top, as Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger tweeted, "we are on it."
There have been rumors of some delays in recent weeks, but we must be heartened by Koduri's Tweet this weekend, which acknowledged the GPU shortage "is a huge issue for PC gamers and the industry at large." Moreover, Intel has concrete action plans to become a significant player, releasing a cornucopia of GPU products to the market. "Intel Graphics is working hard to find a path towards the mission - getting millions of Arc GPUs into the hands of PC gamers every year," said the graphics chief.
On Sunday, the Intel CEO added his voice to reassure gamers that changes are coming. Gelsinger took to Twitter to sympathize with the depressed GPU-less PC gaming hordes and confidently claimed, "we are on it."
Talk Is Cheap
The above are encouraging statements from two very senior Intel execs. However, they don't say anything different to the incumbent red and green team bosses, who always seem to be "doing their best" to help out PC gamers to no avail. In other words, talk is cheap and, we want to see results - meaning bountiful, high performance, and attractively priced GPUs.
There are many reasons to be somewhat skeptical about Intel's potential to be the PC GPU market savior. Firstly, it uses TSMC's foundry services to fab Arc Alchemist GPUs, affecting the amounts of GPUs that rivals can make utilizing this manufacturing resource. Additionally, Intel will be using TSMC N6 production lines, which are the N7 lines with some added EUV frills.
Another bone of contention some PC gamers might have with Intel is that it hasn't planned any crypto mining throttle, no LHR-like tech, for Arc Alchemist. So, while paying lip service to PC gamers, it might be hoping that it can catch the wave of overpriced GPUs with its "millions of Arc GPUs." However, we note that Intel and its partners have a tremendous interest in a thriving PC industry, including gaming PCs.
We are still waiting for the first modern discrete Intel GPUs to arrive and establish a product beachhead for the Arc Alchemist series. Only once they are ready for launch will we genuinely see the range's performance in independent tests.
A split in the Arc GPU rollout schedule is expected, with Q1 targeted for mobile GPUs used by Intel's laptop-making partners, with desktop GPUs from an array of partners pushed out to the eager masses of PC enthusiasts and DIYers in Q2 2022 sometime. However, we have recently reported on some possible delays to the schedule.
