Intel has recently released a promotional video teasing the dual-fan cooler design of their upcoming Arc gaming graphics card with 1000 drones. The company used 1000 drones fitted with lighting to create various shapes including a dual-fan desktop graphics card which has a strong resemblance to the previously leaked design for a DG2-512EU engineering sample. The two images also both include 9 blades on the fans giving further authority to the previous rumor. The first Intel Arc "Alchemist" products will begin shipping in Q1 2022 with the flagship desktop graphics card rumored to feature 512 Execution Units paired with 16 GB GDDR6 memory targeting RTX 3070 Ti performance. Intel is also preparing a NVIDIA DLSS/AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution competitor codenamed XeSS and will include hardware-accelerated raytracing support with the Arc lineup.

Intel today surprised us with the reveal of its new high-performance gaming graphics brand, Intel Arc. Competing with the AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce brands, Arc enables Intel to take a stab at the gaming graphics market that's been a duopoly for the past 2 decades; and the company doesn't intend to only make low-cost e-sports chips. As if a statement of intent, the company revealed the codenamed of the first three generations of Arc: "Battlemage," "Celestial," and "Druid."

Of these "Battlemage" is likely the fancy new codename for the Xe HPG graphics architecture, which has been implemented in a working prototype referred to as the DG2, and which Intel is now referring to as "Alchemist." Intel revealed that "Battlemage" is being designed to meet DirectX 12 Ultimate requirements, which means it will support hardware-accelerated real-time raytracing; mesh shaders, sampler feedback, and variable-rate shading. Intel also announced that the chips will feature an AI-accelerated supersampling feature. This will rival NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR. Intel announced that the first consumer products based on the "Alchemist" silicon will release in the first quarter of 2022, the company will put out more specifics throughout 2021, in the run-up to this launch.