Intel has provided a long-awaited tease for its entry into the desktop GPU market, revealing a radically new design for its first discrete gaming chip that is planned to launch later this year.
The tease for the Intel Arc A-series desktop GPU shows a very luxurious design, and one that is very different to the version that developers have been messing around with. It looks like a thick design, taking some notes from Nvidia’s Founder’s Edition design in terms of angles and its metal finish. Where it differs is with its dual-fan system and chunky PCB, with a full metal backplate that doesn’t mimic the passthrough design that Nvidia launched with its 30-series cards.
The tease came at the tail-end of a stream that marked the launch of Intel Arc discrete GPUs in laptops, with the two budget options in the range launching today in laptops starting at $900. More powerful laptop GPUs are expected this summer, with the Intel Arc desktop GPU expected to fall within that timeframe or slightly later.
It’s good to see more competition in the GPU space, and this year seems to be a big one. AMD is expected to announce its next-generation GPU architecture later this year, while there are rumblings that Nvidia might be preparing to do the same. Nvidia just launched a new 30-series GPU this week, with the RTX 3090 Ti aimed more at creative tasks with its staggering $2,000 price tag.
