Is a new Intel Arc delay coming?

May 6, 2022 - 19:28
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Is a new Intel Arc delay coming?

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, verified the good pace of work of its engineers at a company financial conference and confirmed the arrival of the first Intel Arc desktop graphics cards for some time in the second quarter of this year. Even if the deadline were pushed out until June 30, we'd be less than two months away from the long-awaited premiere.

The Intel Arc graphics adapters, which took over from the finally unreleased Intel Xe DG2 and Intel Xe HPG, still generated more expectations than its predecessor projects, both for what Intel promised us with them and for the effect that the landing of a giant like Intel could have in a market then as battered as that of graphics cards.

The business claimed that the first Intel Arc GPUs will be available in the first quarter of this year, and they did… but in extremely limited quantities and with the countdown coming to a close. As of now, laptops with Intel Arc GPUs are only available in a few markets and on a limited number of machines. And, for some time now, it has been rumored that the issue is not with the hardware, but with the software, specifically the drivers and other parts responsible for the proper operation of the graphics.

And now, according to Wccftech, the first Intel Arc graphics cards for desktop PCs may be delayed until the second half or perhaps the end of summer, violating the increasingly tight debut projection, which might come as late as the end of June. There is a lot of uncertainty about it, and there is no official information to clarify the situation, but as of today, some parties concerned say they don't know when the Intel Arc graphics cards will be available.

If these sources are correct, we may still have to wait a few months for the first Intel Arc graphics, and even longer for their general availability in all countries. If Intel is compelled to sell the initial devices without complete trust in their operation, just a few units may be sold, and only in very specific markets, such as Asia.

A scheduled date delay is always bad news. However, it cannot be denied that this is the most responsible position. Intel Arc is a strategically essential proposition for Intel at a time when technology has reaccelerated after a few challenging years. Arriving on time is crucial, but arriving well is much more important, and if the first must be sacrificed in order to achieve the latter, we believe that a delay is preferable to a false arrival.