Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is putting an end to speculation that the company will stop developing graphics processing units as Gelsinger tweeted, "currently getting [the] the first batch of A770 cards ready for market" Intel graphics head Raja Koduri gave Gelsinger a personal A770.
Once the A770 is released, it will be a significant milestone for Intel. However, the company has shipped only certain kinds of laptops with mobile Arc GPUs thus far. Although it was released in China first, the driver-problem-plagued and critically panned Arc 380 has yet to find favor elsewhere.
In light of reports that Intel could be leaving further businesses in 2023, speculation arose that the company would abandon GPUs. Koduri dismissed the rumors last week, and now Gelsinger says the A770 will be released.
The destination of the A770's shipments is still unknown. Intel has only released the A380 in China; it is unclear if the A770, the first card Intel will produce with gamers in mind, will follow suit or if the company will expand the distribution of its Alchemist GPUs to other regions. Assuming that's still the plan, though.
This is the wrong time for both Intel and Intel. We were amid a significant component scarcity when Intel declared it was taking GPUs seriously, so the entry of a third competitor seemed inevitable. Refreshing online stores or waiting outside brick-and-mortar stores was necessary if you wanted to get your hands on one of the most incredible graphics cards without paying scalpers.
As a result of the Merge, mining businesses specializing in Ethereum are dumping their GPUs, causing GPU prices from Nvidia and AMD to normalize, often dipping below the suggested retail price. The RTX 40-series of graphics cards will also be unveiled by Nvidia tomorrow during the fall GTC 2022 keynote.
However, a healthy dose of competition never hurts. Intel has claimed that the Arc A770's ray tracing performance at 1080p on ultra settings is superior to that of a GeForce RTX 3060. Intel's XeSS upscaling suggests that the company won't be able to compete at the high end of the market, but it may find a happy medium between price and performance in the center.
