Intel Arc GPU: Everything about the new graphics cards

Intel Arc is the name of Intel’s upcoming graphics cards for laptops and desktop computers. The first generation of these graphics cards is the Intel Arc A series, where the “A” stands for “Alchemist”. With Intel Arc, there will be competition for the GPUs from Nvidia and AMD for the first time since the Voodoo graphics cards.

The first Arc generation already offers modern functions such as the intelligent upscaling technology Xe Super Sampling and the light simulation Raytracing.

Intel’s Xe Super Sampling is a technology for AI-enhanced game upscaling. The games are rendered by the graphics card in a lower resolution such as Full HD and then upscaled to a higher resolution such as 4K using artificial intelligence. As a result, games look almost as sharp as they do in the higher resolution, even though the graphics card has to do much less to make it work. The advantage is a high refresh rate with attractive image sharpness – this way you get more out of the graphics card.

Xe Super Sampling is compatible from launch with numerous games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut and Hitman III. Thanks to Intel’s collaboration with many game studios, more will follow soon.

Intel Arc is compatible with DirectX 12 Ultimate and offers the latest graphics technologies. This includes the light simulation raytracing, which is responsible for believable lighting, organic shadows and reflections in real time. Variable rate shading (VRS) and mesh shading allow different image content to be rendered in different qualities, which saves a lot of computing effort with a similar image impression. So you get higher frame rates (FPS).

If you combine selected Intel Core processors with Intel Arc graphics cards, there are advantages in terms of performance and power consumption. The advantages mentioned by Deep Link include dynamic load management: The power is intelligently redirected between the processor and graphics card, depending on where it is needed most. So the laptop runs at optimal performance for every task without wasting energy.

Stream Assist offloads streaming workloads to the onboard Intel graphics so you don’t have to compromise on game framerates while streaming games. Hyper Encode uses the media engines in Intel Core processors and Intel Arc graphics cards to speed up applications like video editing.

If you use an Intel Arc graphics card for media creation, you benefit from the powerful Xe Media Engine. It can handle numerous codecs including AV1, H.264/AVC, VP9 and H.265/HEVC. The free video codec AV1 is 50 percent more efficient than the common H.264, which has great advantages for streaming games, for example.

Intel Arc GPUs have an artificial intelligence that handles the scaling and retouching of photos and videos. You can let the AI ​​handle such small and tedious tasks and deal with the creative aspects. The XMX AI Engine improves the quality of low-resolution videos, with an AI improving sharpness and detail. Deep Link Hyper Compute intelligently leverages different computing engines from Intel Arc graphics cards and Intel Core processors to let you edit videos and images at high speed.

Right from the start, numerous games are optimized for Intel Arc features such as Xe Super Sampling. Intel has partnered with publishers like 505 Games (“Death Stranding: Director’s Cut”), Codemasters (“Grid Legends”) and Ubisoft (“Far Cry 6”) to ensure that as many games as possible get the most out of Intel Arc. For example, you can look forward to the dinosaur adventure “Instinction”, which runs on the modern Unreal Engine 5.