Intel May Delay Arc Desktop GPUs Until the End of August

Intel Arc Alchemist delay rumor
(Image credit: Intel)

The release of Intel's Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards could be postponed, according to a new report published by Igor Wallossek on his Igor's Lab tech site. Multiple sources have contacted Wallossek, and all agree that these desktop GPUs will be late, but how late isn't clearly defined, with the release window now expected to fall between the beginning of July to the end of August.

Intel's official position concerning the release of its Arc Alchemist desktop graphics cards is that they will start to roll out in Q2 2022. However, we are now firmly into Q2, and Q3 begins at the beginning of July. So a hard launch at the beginning of July would be a little late, but the end of August is quite a severe delay.

Yesterday, we reported that Intel missed its self-imposed deadline to deliver an Arc GPU driver update. It could be a symptom of the hardware release delays to come. In the body of his news post, Wallossek seems to indicate that some of his sources are "preferred testers." Suppose the wider tech community has noticed a delay in Intel's software update delivery schedule. In that case, the professional testing community will be highly frustrated about such delays, which may have something to do with this report.

Early summer or late summer? (Image credit: Intel)

Igor's Lab reckons that software and driver problems are behind the touted launch/release delays. Wallossek reckons the Intel Arc desktop hardware, firmware, final clock speeds, and so on are all now finalized. Again this info seems to come from insider testers.

Intel has many hoops to jump through with its first serious series of discrete graphics cards. So it is natural to wonder whether the delayed cards will have all their advanced features available, like XeSS, when they eventually launch. Remember, AMD seemed to stumble over the introduction of FSR, but now it has that feature in the rear view mirror; it has been able to successfully tune and refine this feature (and FSR2) alongside others in its updates.

Igor shares some other interesting observations about the Arc Alchemist desktop launch delay. He indicates that Intel's delay or leaked specs of the upcoming hardware may have helped Nvidia decide to cancel the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB. He also reckons the Intel Arc Alchemist desktop graphics card launch may be a muted one due to the absence of big board partners, lack of retailer price guarantees, and RMA considerations.

As with any non-official news release, please take the above with a pinch of salt or two. Another relatively fresh rumor is that Intel will launch desktop Arc cards at Computex (which starts on May 24). That could be a 'paper launch,' and both rumors be correct, but things will become more apparent in the next few weeks.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • renz496
    at this point just focus on OEM. DIY market? come back here when Arc reaching at least into the third generation.
    Reply
  • LastStanding
    I guess I will never understand today's high-salary market's executives, etc.

    Why release your product close to your rival's refreshes that outdo you in every single way?! Why risk missing the back-2-school frenzy, etc.?! 🤔
    Reply
  • ezst036
    This is becoming a debacle.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    LastStanding said:
    I guess I will never understand today's high-salary market's executives, etc.

    Why release your product close to your rival's refreshes that outdo you in every single way?! Why risk missing the back-2-school frenzy, etc.?! 🤔
    intel's choices are to either do a paper launch or to delay release, they are making these GPUs with tsmc wafers so it's not up to them how many and when they will get them.

    Also since nvidia/amd seem to not make any low level tiers anymore intel might do well enough in those markets in perf/$$.
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    ezst036 said:
    This is becoming a debacle.
    While that's kinda true, I'd rather they release them when they're ready with decent support rather than release them half-baked. Whether or not they do so I guess we'll find out in August.
    Reply
  • zipspyder
    ezst036 said:
    This is becoming a debacle.

    I always thought coding drivers would be their Achilles heel so to speak from the minimal information that is available.
    Reply
  • btmedic04
    Arc is very quickly becoming i740 all over again. Their first attempt at discrete gpus was late and underperformed. The same thing is happening with Arc in light of Lovelace and RDNA3 launches looming in the fall.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    ezst036 said:
    This is becoming a debacle.
    Intel is living up to my expectations based on its history with i740.

    DG1 was a proof of concept, DG2 is a tentative open beta that apparently still isn't quite ready yet after already being delayed by over six months, DG3 will be the first real products assuming Intel makes it that far instead of calling it quits again.

    20 additional years of developing and maintaining driver stacks for IGPs including about three years worth of Xe-based designs apparently didn't help Intel much.
    Reply
  • JayNor
    The CEO stated, in the q1 earnings call, "We'll have the desktop SKUs coming in Q2. And we'll have more SKUs as we go through the year as well."

    It isn't a rumor.
    Reply
  • drivinfast247
    ezst036 said:
    This is becoming a debacle.
    This debacle is becoming a fiasco.
    Reply