Intel Arc A-series GPUs for laptops launched: All you need to know

After months of announcements leading up to a launch, Intel has announced its first Arc A-series discrete GPUs for laptops, which are now available. The Arc A-series GPUs support DirectX 12 and offer twice the power of Intel’s Integrated Xe graphics for now. They also support dedicated ray-tracing hardware.
The company has launched Arc 3 series GPUs, which are actually the least powerful compared to the rest of the lineup that is expected to come later this year. These include the A350M with 6 Xe-cores and 6 ray-tracing units. The A370M is slightly more powerful with 8 Xe-cores and 8 ray tracing units. Both GPUs offer 4GB DDR6 memory.

“We’ve partnered with top OEMs to co-engineer an amazing lineup of laptops that feature new and improved gaming and content creation capabilities with Intel Arc graphics and 12th Gen Intel Core processors. Many new systems with Intel Arc 3 graphics will feature the Intel Evo platform’s trademark responsiveness, battery life and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity in thin-and-light form factors,” Intel said in a press statement.
The Arc 3 series discrete GPUs are targeted at thin and light laptops, and will offer more graphical performance compared to integrated graphics, but they’re still not meant for true gaming. Gaming laptops are expected to implement the Arc 5 and Arc 7 series GPUs that will come later. Those will offer more graphic cores and ray tracing units, while offering more memory as well.

Intel also revealed that its first desktop Arc GPUs would also arrive in the second quarter, 2022. New workstation GPUs are also set to launch in third quarter this year. Amidst the slowly dropping prices of the current GPUs in the market as well as the launch of the Nvidia RTX 40-series graphic cards inching closer, it will be interesting to see how Intel’s Arc GPUs will fit into the mix in the months to come.