The latest reports from the rumor mill indicate that Intel’s Arc graphics cards will be available later than originally anticipated. YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead claims that the 128 EU SOC2 GPU will be paper launched in March for notebooks. However, supply is expected to be very limited. The higher-end SOC2 for desktops (512 EUs against the RTX 3070/3070 Ti) is slated to be ready by April, but it’s unclear whether the launch will be placed in the same time frame.
The reference models of the SOC1 are expected to be ready for deployment by mid-Q2 or May while the AIB models will be physically ready by April. As already mentioned, the actual launch date will be dictated by the drivers, firmware, and overall software-side readiness. Finally, the actual hard launch will happen by late Q2 in the form of the mobile GPUs. You’re looking at a release sometime in June. The desktop SoCs may land sometime earlier, most likely in May or late April.
In terms of performance, Intel is targeting the entire market other than the ultra-high segment. We’ve got a 512 EU part to go up against the GeForce RTX 3070/3070 Ti, a 384 EU for the RTX 3060/3060 Ti, and finally a 128 EU GPU for the RTX 3050/3050 Ti. In the mobile space, all the GPUs from the entry-level MX450 to the high-end RTX 3080 will be targeted by Intel’s Arc graphics cards.
