Intel Arc GPU to be announced soon: Should we be excited?

(Image credit: Intel)

Intel's newest GPU dubbed "Arc" will arrive on March 30 at the recently announced "A New Stage of the Game" event. Intel's event page shows a video and some images of Arc-powered Desktops and Laptops. They're also already selling Arc-related merch, which is kind of hilarious when you take into consideration that Intel has no track record with its discrete GPUs, making diehard fans ahead of launch unlikely.

Nobody is sure what to expect from the new Arc GPU, even though Intel is promising better streaming, content editing, battery life, and gaming performance. On Intel's Arc page the company states "Dynamic Power Share Intelligently routes power between CPU and GPU processing engines to boost performance ...Whether you’re gaming or creating, finishing up tasks, or just getting started on an epic session with friends, you’ll get performance for creativity, productivity, and gaming with Intel Deep Link technology."

Like many others, I want to be excited by the March 30 Intel Event, but Intel has so frequently disappointed with its integrated GPUs while making bold claims that it's hard to trust them this time. I don't expect an Intel GPU to take on AMD or Nvidia, but it would be nice if they finally built a GPU that could offer users consistent passable performance.

You may like

Yes, I wrote passable because up until now, whenever I see "Intel GPU," I know, regardless of the CPUs ability or how much RAM the system has, the GPUs performance is going to leave me sad.

I won't be fooled again, Intel! However, I am crossing my fingers that this first full effort at a discrete GPU brings solid performance improvements. I pray to the GPU Gods as we could certainly use some more options in the market. Several iterations will fall under the Arc umbrella depending on your performance needs. These include the Alchemist Xe HPG, Battlemage Xe2 HPG, Celestial Xe3 HPG and the Druid (Xe's next architecture).

I want to be excited, but I'm getting that same gut feeling I had when my dad promised me Star Wars action figures for Christmas, but instead of Luke Skywalker with the lightsaber, I got a Canal Street knock-off named Lucas Longwalker.

I guess we will find out on March 30, if Intel is finally going to bring a solid discrete GPU option to market, or if the Arc t-shirts will be the best thing to come out of this event.

Via: Neowin

Mark has spent 20 years headlining comedy shows around the country and made appearances on ABC, MTV, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, Food Network, and Sirius XM Radio. He has written about every topic imaginable, from dating, family, politics, social issues, and tech. He wrote his first tech articles for the now-defunct Dads On Tech 10 years ago, and his passion for combining humor and tech has grown under the tutelage of the Laptop Mag team. His penchant for tearing things down and rebuilding them did not make Mark popular at home, however, when he got his hands on the legendary Commodore 64, his passion for all things tech deepened. These days, when he is not filming, editing footage, tinkering with cameras and laptops, or on stage, he can be found at his desk snacking, writing about everything tech, new jokes, or scripts he dreams of filming.