A new leak about the upcoming Intel Arc desktop GPU line says that they might be priced very competitively. That is, if the rumors turns out to be accurate.
intel arc gpu
The leak comes from a document from Team Blue's partners in Taiwan, reports PCGamer. According to the document, it says that the Arc desktop GPU line from the Alchemist architecture will be priced between $150-$399 at the lowest and highest-end SKUs. If accurate, then this could spell trouble for NVIDIA and AMD's duopoly - assuming that the cards offer excellent performance for the price.
Entry-level Intel Arc GPUs start with the A310 and the relatively maligned A380 (which only released in China for some reason). These cards will start at a very affordable $110-$150, with their performance said to compete with the now six-year-old GTX 1050 Ti and the roughly three-year-old GTX 1650 from NVIDIA. One might not strongly consider these cards for modern games at all, but they could be good-enough upgrades for integrated GPU/APU setups looking to play some light MOBAs like DOTA 2 or League of Legends.
One should note, however, that the entry-level Arc desktop cards (specifically the Arc A380) won't really have an "AMD equivalent" because they're already quite below the current lowest-end RX 6400 from Team Red. This is based on numerous early benchmarks showcasing the A380 be beaten in almost every game in 1080p tests.
Next up is the mid-ranger A580, which is the Intel Arc desktop GPU series' competitor to the RTX 3050. Allegedly priced at around $250, the Arc A580 could be billed as a 1080p gaming card, though it might still struggle agains the 3050 if it doesn't have respectable upscaling and ray tracing tech. The AMD equivalent for the A580 will be the RX 6500 XT.
Lastly, we go to the high-end SKUs (though "high-end" is really a bit of a stretch). While there's an "Enthusiast" level GPU competing with the RTX 3070 that's still unannounced, the current cream of the crop for Team Blue is only able to compete with the RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti at $300-$399 MSRP (via WCCFTech). On the AMD side, that will be the RX 6650 XT and the RX 6600.
intel arc a750
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Is This Troublesome For NVIDIA And AMD?
Well, it really depends on what Team Green and Team Red do for the next generation when it comes to pricing. One might notice that during the life cycle of the 30-series and 6000-series, NVIDIA and AMD basically put the MSRPs of their cards (even the entry-level ones) sky-high.
This isn't even mentioning how the chip shortage drove street pricing into even more insane heights. If the upcoming 40 series and 7000 series from the GPU duopoly are still priced terribly high, then Intel's break into the market could spell trouble. The highest-end "Enthusiast" level Arc GPU will reportedly only cost $400-$499.
Should the performance of that card be a perfect complement for the price, then NVIDIA and AMD's hold on the market will be challenged. But really, we digress. Everything isn't confirmed at this point and is only pure speculation, until all the cards from Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD have launched. So for now, it's a matter of when, not if.
Related: Graphics Card Names EXPLAINED: What Is GTX, RTX, Etc...
