Friday, February 4th 2022
Intel Arc "Alchemist" PCB Closeup Shows Up on Intel Graphics Discord
Intel put out a clear, close-up picture of its Arc "Alchemist" gaming graphics card engineering sample. This matches with a picture of the PCB rear shot that surfaced in a report by "Moore's Law is Dead." The picture reveals a PCB that's about 3/4th the length of the cooling solution, with the remainder of the cooler's length being used to directly vent airflow from the back.
The PCB reveals a rectangular pad for the GPU, which corresponds with that of the larger "Alchemist" GPU. This is surrounded by what look like eight GDDR6 memory pads for a 256-bit wide memory interface; at least 10 VRM phases of an unknown configuration; and a power input configuration that's made up of one each of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors (capable of delivering 300 W including slot power). The PCB shows traces that connect the GPU to all 16 PCI-Express lanes of the PCIe finger. Display outputs include three full-size DisplayPorts and an HDMI. This particular variant of "Alchemist" is rumored to feature 512 execution units (4,096 unified shaders), and at least in SiSoft SANDRA, it allegedly outperforms the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti "Ampere."
Source:
SquashBionic (Twitter)
The PCB reveals a rectangular pad for the GPU, which corresponds with that of the larger "Alchemist" GPU. This is surrounded by what look like eight GDDR6 memory pads for a 256-bit wide memory interface; at least 10 VRM phases of an unknown configuration; and a power input configuration that's made up of one each of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors (capable of delivering 300 W including slot power). The PCB shows traces that connect the GPU to all 16 PCI-Express lanes of the PCIe finger. Display outputs include three full-size DisplayPorts and an HDMI. This particular variant of "Alchemist" is rumored to feature 512 execution units (4,096 unified shaders), and at least in SiSoft SANDRA, it allegedly outperforms the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti "Ampere."
54 Comments on Intel Arc "Alchemist" PCB Closeup Shows Up on Intel Graphics Discord
The only thing that might help Intel then is good pricing and Intel already indicated it won't be cheap and this will fail.
It's not at all a solution for people wanting to upgrade ageing cards, it's a card which goes in your new build an lets you play AAA games at acceptable quality levels.
I don't think it's exactly a question of whether it is an objectively good or bad product. Objectively it's a bad product, in that it should be faster, have more PCIE lanes, encoding, etc. But OTOH, it's better than the available alternatives, so if you need a GPU for your new PC it's the only choice in many cases (e.g., if you don't want to spend more than $250, and used is not an option for you).