On March 30, 2022, Intel launched Intel Arc A-series graphics for laptops. Laptops with Intel Arc 3 graphics are available first. Laptops with Arc 5 and Arc 7 are coming in early summer.â (Credit: Intel Corporation)
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Intel ARC
On March 30, 2022, Intel launched Intel Arc graphics processing units for laptops. Intel Arc 3 graphics offer enhanced gaming and content creation. Coming in early summer, Intel Arc 5 and Arc 7 graphics will deliver increased graphics and computing performance. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
What happened:
- Intel announced its new Arc A-series GPUs for laptops.
- They support DirectX 12 and have dedicated ray-tracing hardware.
- What was announced for laptops yesterday was Intelâs least powerful GPUs via its Arc 3 series, which are more for creative applications than gaming.
- The bigger hitters for gaming laptops come from the Arc 5 and Arc 7 GPUs, which will contain multiple more graphics cores, memory, ray-tracing units, and so on, arriving later, in âearly summer.â
- (The Arc 3, 5, 7 naming matches Intelâs i3, i5, i7 naming convention).
The details:
- So far, what weâve seen from the Arc 3 series is that these comfortably beat out Intelâs integrated Iris Xe graphics, by as much as double, though thatâs still only okay.
- Still, competitive game benchmarks provided by Intel for Fortnite running 1080p gameplay on medium setting, shows 94fps on the higher-end Arc 3 card.
- Performance may differ depending on the specific laptop build and overall cooling, and of course, itâll mean a lot more when third parties run a full suite of tests rather than relying on Intelâs published benchmarksâŚ
- The A350M has six Xe-cores and six ray-tracing units, and the A370M has eight Xe-cores and eight ray-tracing units.
- From the limited benchmarks Intel offered, it didnât compare to Nvidia or AMD directly.
In short:
- Anything with an Arc 3 series doesnât exactly mean a gaming laptop.
- But it seems better entry-level capabilities will be a win, and at a competent performance per watt.
- For creative people, similar benefits abound for creative tasks, with Intel showing performance improvements for tasks using tools like Adobe Premiere Pro.
- They have useful video encoding and decoding support, including 8K 10-bit HDR AV1 encoding as well.
- But we lack real reference points to understand the full picture just yet, in terms of versus Nvidia and AMD, and Apple for that matter, and how battery life on entry-level laptops is affected.
Whatâll come with it?
- The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro will be the first laptop to offer Arc 3 GPUs as an option.
- The likes of Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and many more will also offer Arc laptops, starting as low as $899.
Whatâs next?
- This is clearly the start of Intelâs Arc journey and the takeaway is that itâs âŚokay.
- Itâs a step, not a revolution.
- The Arc 5 and 7 GPUs in the next round of higher-end gaming laptops will be much more scrutinized for how they compete. Intel wonât be able to omit comparison benchmarks by then.
- The attempted shake-up from Intel to deliver real competition happens at both the high and low-end, and we start at the low-end.
Roundup
đ OnePlus announces its OnePlus 10 Pro launch about three hours after this newsletter is sent (Android Authority).
đ Apple will yield to Dutch dating apps to use other payment options within existing apps, but the olâ commission isnât exactly going away. Apple hopes it stops being fined, too (The Verge). Also, Apple now allows Netflix, Spotify, and other âreaderâ apps to link to their sites for payment, as part of a settlement in Japan, though restrictions apply (Engadget).
đ˛ eDirtySixer lays claim to title of âworldâs biggest ebike,â with 36-inch wheels for the really tall (NewAtlas).
đ Your contact lenses can now seep antihistamines into your eyes, if you want, the start of a simple way to treat eye problems? (Gizmodo).
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Thereâs something about April 1. Tomorrow, as we dodge tricks from pranksters both online and offline, itâs also a significant date for actual real tech.
In particular:
- April 1, 1976 â Apple Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
- April 1, 2004 â Gmail launched.
Memories:
- Being younger than Apple, I donât remember it being founded.
- But boy do I remember Gmailâs launch: offering 1GB of data storage, it seemed way too good to be true, especially for a free service launched on April 1, though you had to get an invite in the early going.
- Anyway, if you get a moment, read the launch recap from Time, published 10 years after Gmail launched.
- It includes details on Paul Buchheit, Gmailâs creator. Buchheit didnât build it on the companyâs 20% time, but was instructed to âBuild some kind of email something.â
- Buchheit also suggested Googleâs former company motto, âDonât be evil,â in a meeting on company values in the year 2000.
Cheers â Iâm away tomorrow, but Paula will be with you!
Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.