Intel Unveils Arc Pro GPUs

Intel’s Arc graphics cards aren’t just for gamers, it seems, as the previously CPU-exclusive company has taken the lid off a new line of professional GPUs to complement the existing Arc line — well, existing in China, maybe. The new cards are called Arc Pro, and target those who use their graphics cards for more than shooting bad guys. Maybe they won't be among the best graphics cards for gaming, but the AV1 encoding at least might get some takers.

Intel today unveiled one mobile professional GPU, the A30M, and two desktop models: the single-slot A40 and double-slot A50. Both desktop cards are described as being for small form-factor machines, which makes us suspect Intel may have some much larger cards up its sleeve.

All the newly announced GPUs feature built-in ray tracing hardware, machine learning capabilities and industry-first AV1 hardware encoding acceleration. Google’s royalty-free, open source alternative to HEVC, AV1 hasn’t gained a lot of traction on the web so far despite promises from Netflix and YouTube, with its main use being in Google’s Duo video calling despite beating HEVC for compression quality. It’s always been very slow to encode, however, so a good hardware accelerator and Intel’s backing could see it take off.

Elsewhere, the Intel Arc Pro A-series graphics processors are certified ready with leading professional software applications within the architecture, engineering and construction, and design and manufacturing industries. And you can also use them to run the likes of Blender and the open source libraries in the Intel oneAPI Rendering Toolkit, which “are widely adopted and integrated in industry-leading rendering tools,” according to Intel.

We do have to wonder about the drivers situation with Arc Pro. There have been numerous documented problems with the Arc A380 cards, and Intel has already released several driver updates — which can ultimately get Windows into a state where the drivers won't even install, according to Gamers' Nexus. Other aspects of the drivers, like Smooth Sync, are broken. But perhaps that's because Intel has been focusing its driver efforts on the professional side of things? We hope that's the case, because as bad as the consumer drivers are, professionals will be far less willing to deal with broken support.

SIGGRAPH attendees in Vancouver this year will be able to see Arc Pro demos at Intel’s booth, while the rest of us can wait for the chips to be released “later this year.” We look forward to pitting the Intel Arc Pro cards against Radeon Pro and RTX A-series offerings from AMD and Nvidia.