Intel Teases Alchemist Graphics Card In Arc GPU Gameplay Trailer At Game Awards Show

The discrete GPU race is currently a contest between just two major players, AMD and NVIDIA, but Intel is getting ready to enter the marathon very soon as well. Lest anyone happened to forget, Intel offered up a sneak peek of its upcoming Arc Alchemist graphics card during The Game Awards 2021 show, as part of a 30-second gameplay trailer.

We don't get to see much of the actual card—it's more of a glimpse, really, and in dark lighting sitting behind what looks like a tinted side glass window. Plus it's a rendered scene. Still, it's the first actual product render we have seen for Arc Alchemist. More importantly, it's a reminder that Intel is on track to join the fray in the first quarter of 2022.

Also, if you are participating in Intel's Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt, there may just be a juicy clue hidden somewhere in the video that relates to question #5, or maybe not. You will just have to look around for yourself to see if you can find one. If you are not yet participating in the Scavenger Hunt you should be. Intel is giving away 300 Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs and 3000 discount coupons for the upcoming GPUs. Yep, 3300 in total. Join Intel Insider's Discord to learn more or visit the contest page.

While we can't see much of the rendered card itself, we can make out what looks to be a single 8-pin PCIe cable feeding the graphics card. Intel has yet to provide any concrete details about Alchemist's clock speeds, memory configuration, and power draw, so we'll take what we can get.

The trailer begins with Intel declaring, "A new player has entered the game." It then goes on to highlight buttery smooth gameplay in a handful of titles, including Rider's Republic, Age of Empires 4, Back 4 Blood, Rift Breaker, Hitman III, and Arcadegeddon.

Detailed settings and performance metrics are not provided, though the video is available to view at up to 1440p, suggesting that is the resolution these games are being played in for the trailer. Intel also took the opportunity to double-down on some features of Alchemist, such as AI-enhanced upscaling, real-time ray tracing, and accelerated game streaming.

Alchemist will get Intel's Arc party started next year, followed by Battlemage (Xe2 HPG), Celestial (Xe3 HPG), and Druid (Xe Next Architecture). During its Architecture Day 2021 event, Intel confirmed that Alchemist will wield up to eight render slices per GPU instantiation, with four cores per slice and 16 vector engines per core. Some basic math works out to 512 vector engines in a fully populated Alchemist GPU (Alchemist/DG2-512).

Previous rumors suggest performance will be somewhere around a GeForce RTX 3070 or GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, which is pretty decent for a first-gen product. Here's hoping that availability and pricing end up favorable as well.