In addition to the official announcement of the 13th generation Core processors, at the last Intel InnovatiON event, company head Patrick Gelsinger finally announced the timing of the start of sales of video cards of the ARC Alchemist series. The new adapters will hit the market as soon as October 12. Intel’s top-of-the-line ARC A770 models will be available first, starting at $329.

We will remind that the flagship versions are equipped with ACM-G10 graphics processors with 32 Xe-modules, including 4096 computers. At the same time, video cards will be offered in versions with 8 GB and 16 GB of memory. Apparently, the announced cost is for the 8GB versions.

At the same time, the reference model Intel ARC A770 Limited Edition directly from the manufacturer, which should be the first to appear on the market, will be offered only in the version with 16 GB. Therefore, the announced cost still needs to be clarified.

Intel ARC A770 Limited Edition has already been sent to reviewers for testing. The NDA for publication will most likely expire with the official start of sales on October 12, when the real capabilities of the senior model of the ARC Alchemist series can be assessed. For now, we have to be content only with assurances that the Intel ARC A770 is 65% more productive than its opponents in ray tracing games. In this case, Inte does not name specific competitors. Obviously, the GeForce RTX 3060 models are meant, which also have a suggested retail price of $329.

Intel really focuses on the advanced capabilities of its devices. In particular, performance when using ray tracing, as well as support for XeSS intelligent scaling technology.

Unfortunately, there is no information yet on the ARC A750 and ARC A580 models, let alone their cost. However, it is already obvious that these adapters will be cheaper than older modifications of the line. Details about the A750 are expected to emerge before the end of this week. However, the manufacturer provided an official slide, which can be used to evaluate the power ratio of the ARC A770 and ARC 750. According to the data presented, the younger model is 10-15% inferior to the flagship in terms of performance.

Although Intel formally failed to fulfill the promise to present its video cards in the summer, even by financial reporting metrics, but some delay here can be forgiven. We hope that the extra time is used for software optimizations. While NVIDIA is focusing on the top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 4000 models, and AMD is just preparing to announce its solutions on RDNA 3, Intel has time to come out and try to gain a foothold in the niche of mid-level video cards. The announced price tag inspires hope that the company has a good understanding of its position in the segment of discrete graphics, as well as the way to go. Road is taken by walking. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, because there is no third wheel in the graphics market.