In a stunning transfer given the state of the graphics market proper now, Intel has unveiled its professional graphics card line-up (opens in new tab). Masking each cell and workstations, the brand new Arc Professional GPUs are aimed squarely at professionals and will probably be trying to get the all-important certification from main skilled functions.
There are two desktop merchandise for workstations, with the Arc Pro A40 (opens in new tab) being a single slot card and the extra highly effective Arc Pro A50 (opens in new tab) being a dual-slot providing. The A30M (opens in new tab) is aimed on the cell area and gives related efficiency to the A40, albeit with much less native reminiscence. The specs for these new GPUs are as follows:
| Intel Arc Professional A40 | Intel Arc Professional A50 | Intel Arc Professional A30M (Cell) | |
| Peak efficiency | 3.5TFLOPs | 4.8TFLOPs | 3.5TFLOPs |
| Xe-core | 8x Ray Hint Cores | 8x Ray Hint Cores | 8x Ray Hint Cores |
| Reminiscence | 6GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR6 | 4GB GDDR5 |
| Show outputs | 4x mini-DP 1.4 | 4x mini-DP 1.4 | Laptop computer particular |
| Energy | 50W Peak Energy | 75W Peak Energy | 35–50W Peak Energy |
It is attention-grabbing that Intel is pushing the ray-tracing capabilities of those playing cards, though we do not truly understand how these truthful when in comparison with the Nvidia and AMD competitors at this level. It additionally highlights the truth that its GPUs assist AV1 {hardware} acceleration, which genuinely does look fairly candy, however we have to see how this performs in individual earlier than getting too giddy about it.
The explanation that is of curiosity to us PC avid gamers is that this can be a severe transfer from Intel and one which is not undertaken calmly—not solely is getting the software program accreditation for skilled playing cards costly, but it surely signifies that Intel is on this for the lengthy haul. Given its Arc Alchemist GPUs are nonetheless presently solely out there in China, and the truth that it is clearly having issues with its legacy DX11 support (opens in new tab), you would be forgiven for pondering that its new GPU launch wasn’t precisely going to plan. This unveiling ought to reassure you that it is severe, even when it is not immediately associated to the buyer GPUs we have been ready for.
Properly that and the truth that the successor to Alchemist, codenamed Battlemage, is already within the works. Plus, Intel has been ramping up data earlier than the worldwide launch of its Arc Alchemist (opens in new tab) shopper GPUs just lately. Its candid talks to digital camera have been refreshing, though at this level it might be nice if it simply began delivery graphics playing cards.
There isn’t any indication of pricing for these new “Professional” playing cards, or certainly after we’ll be capable of purchase them, past a suitably obscure “out there beginning later this yr from main cell and desktop ecosystem companions.” Not that you just’d need to purchase such GPUs for gaming, as these drive optimizations do imply far increased value tags.
