Frequenters of the MindFactory.de webshop have highlighted worrying signs of decline. A telling example was posted to the (German language) PCBaumeister subreddit; where a member queried: "what's going on at MindFactory? Only 12 Intel CPUs, 36 graphics cards (all brands), 30 monitors left on offer. Are they going bankrupt or are they emptying their inventory?" Similar alerts landed across PC hardware discussion boards—regional press outlets started to pay attention once a decent number of observations were tallied. Even VideoCardz started to receive tip-offs from its German readership, regarding MindFactory's very limited selection of previous-gen NVIDIA graphics cards (see screenshot below). According to the latest news articles, higher-end GeForce 40-series models are not listed. Additionally, there is a distinct lack of GeForce 50-series products on the webstore. VideoCardz found plenty of entries for AMD Radeon graphics cards, but nothing newer or more advanced than the RX 7800 XT.

Curious customers have contacted the webshop's service team, regarding low inventory and lack of product variety. A typical response reads as follows: "we (Mindfactory.de) are currently restructuring our store, which is why we have so few items in stock at the moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us." Following on from community tips, local media outlets have shared their own investigations—currently, several online sites propose that MindFactory is facing bankruptcy. WinFuture.de's article sports a prominent "Insolvenz—Freie Marktwirtschaft" graphic—translation: "insolvency—free-market capitalism." Igor Wallossek—of Igor's Lab fame—took issue with some of the sensationalistic headlines. He weighed in on this matter: "apparently, bankruptcy is to be filed for next week. I cannot speak about the background, it is extremely sensitive. I have known about it since Friday (February 28)." A dedicated news piece did not appear on igorslab.de, due to the following of an ethical code of conduct.

Take a look at the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for January 2025, and you'll find no fewer than three graphics cards from the now-venerable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-Series lineup. We mean no offense to these battle-proven units, but we suspect that if your machine is still rocking one of these cards, you're probably looking for an upgrade. While we won't deter you from leapfrogging into next-gen territory with a GeForce RTX 50 Series card, we understand that not every gamer's budget can cover one of these chart-topping models.

So here's a wallet-friendly alternative that's still very relevant in 2025: the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 3060. Available for just about $300 (USD), equipped with 12 GB of VRAM, compatible with the most popular GeForce RTX features, and ready for a wide range of builds with its low wattage requirements and compact design, this is the best budget graphics card we offer in 2025 for gamers who prefer NVIDIA GPUs.

Steam's monthly hardware and software surveys provide a decent picture of what hardware and software gamers rely on to play their favorite games—at least those on Valve's game platform. Since the launch of Windows 11, it has been a somewhat reliable way to track the adoption of the new Windows version, and, as the official cut-off for Windows 10 support draws near, one would expect Windows 11 to pick up steam, especially among gamers, where Windows is the dominant OS. The results of the November Steam Survey are in, and while not much has changed on the hardware front, it seems like Microsoft is indeed wearing gamers down when it comes to Windows 11 adoption. Despite seeing a decent uptick in Windows 11 installations, the overall Windows market share dropped, even if almost imperceptibly, while Linux and macOS both saw a slight uptick in adoption among Steam gamers. As expected, Windows remained the dominant platform for gamers, but Windows 11, specifically, saw growth of 4.18%, while Windows 10 lost 4.15%, which is almost an exact 1:1 match, indicating that gamers are largely staying on Windows when they finally decide to move on from Windows 10. Overall, Windows lost 0.05% market share, compared to Linux, which gained 0.03% and macOS, which grew by 0.02%.

Valve's SteamOS Holo was the most popular Linux version in the survey, but it, too, slid by 0.28%. Of course, the hardware split for Linux is representative of the software side of things, which is to say: It's mostly just Steam Decks. As expected, most of the video cards and CPUs in the Linux results were AMD GPUs, with well over 36% of the sampled Linux gamers using AMD GPUs, even disregarding the obvious bias introduced by the AMD-powered Steam Deck hardware. The most popular NVIDIA GPU on Linux systems running Steam is currently the GeForce RTX 3060, at a mere 1.46% of the market share. Meanwhile, on Windows side, 5.03% of gamers are using the GTX 3060, with the next most popular GPU being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, at 4.92%.

As we entered November, Valve just finished processing data for October in its monthly update of Steam Hardware and Software Survey, showcasing trend changes in the largest gaming community. And according to October data, AMD's discrete GPUs are not exactly in the best place. In the top 20 most commonly used GPUs, not a single discrete SKU was based on AMD. All of them included NVIDIA as their primary GPU choice. However, there is some change to AMD's entries, as the Radeon RX 580, which used to be the most popular AMD GPU, just got bested by the Radeon RX 6600 as the most common choice for AMD gamers. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 now holds 0.98% of the GPU market.

NVIDIA's situation paints a different picture, as the top 20 spots are all occupied by NVIDIA-powered gamers. The GeForce RTX 3060 remains the most popular GPU at 7.46% of the GPU market, but the number two spot is now held by the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 5.61%. This is an interesting change since this NVIDIA GPU was in third place, right behind the regular GeForce RTX 4060 for desktops. However, laptop gamers are in abundance, and they are showing their strength, placing the desktop GeForce RTX 4060 in third place, recording 5.25% usage.

"Alan Wake II," released earlier this week, is the latest third person action adventure loaded with psychological thriller elements that call back to some of the best works of Remedy Entertainment, including "Control," "Max Payne 2," and "Alan Wake." It's also a visual feast as our performance review of the game should show you, leveraging the full spectrum of the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. In the run up to the release, when Remedy put out the system requirements lists for "Alan Wake II" with clear segregation for experiences with ray tracing and without; what wasn't clear was just how much the game depended on hardware support for mesh shaders, which is why its bare minimum list called for at least an NVIDIA RTX 2060 "Turing," or at least an AMD RX 6600 XT RDNA2, both of which are DirectX 12 Ultimate GPUs with hardware mesh shaders support.

There was some confusion among gaming online forums over the requirement for hardware mesh shaders. Many people assumed that the game will not work on GPUs without mesh shader support, locking out lots of gamers. Through the course of our testing for our performance review, we learned that while it is true that "Alan Wake II" relies on hardware support for mesh shaders, the lack of this does not break gameplay. You will, however, pay a heavy performance penalty on GPUs that lack hardware mesh shader support. On such GPUs, the game is designed to show users a warning dialog box that their GPU lacks mesh shader support (screenshot below), but you can choose to ignore this warning, and go ahead to play the game. The game considers mesh shaders a "recommended GPU feature," and not a requirement. Without mesh shaders, you can expect a severe performance loss that is best illustrated with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT based on the RDNA architecture, which lacks hardware mesh shaders.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 and RX 700 series based on RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 GPU architectures have been benchmarked by folks over at ComputerBase. However, these weren't regular benchmarks of performance but rather power consumption. According to their latest results, they discovered that enabling Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) can lower the power consumption of AMD Radeon cards in idle. Using a 4K display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, ComputerBase benchmarked Radeon RX 6800/6700 XT and RX 7900 XT, both last-generation and current-generation graphics cards. The performance matrix also includes a comparison to Intel Arc A770, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3080, and RTX 4080.

Regarding performance figures, the tests compare desktop idle consumption, dual monitor power consumption, window movement, YouTube with SDR at 60 FPS, and YouTube with HDR at 60 FPS, all done on a 4K 144 Hz monitor setup. You can see the comparison below, with the most significant regression in power consumption being Radeon RX 7900 XTX using 81% less power in single and 71% less power in dual monitor setup.

Intel Arc A750 graphics card has been regularly shown by its designers to be comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 in terms of performance, making it a formidable DirectX 12 Ultimate-capable 1080p-class gaming graphics card, with each of its new driver release ironing out game-specific performance issues. An ASRock A750 custom-design graphics card is now listed on Newegg for $199, with a coupon shaving off a further $20. At $179, the A750 is hard to pass, considering that other cards from its class are a bit pricier. The cheapest Radeon RX 6650 XT is currently going for $240, and the cheapest RTX 3060 (12 GB original spec) for $280.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 was released more than four years ago. With its TU117 graphics processor, it features 896 CUDA cores, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. NVIDIA has paired 4 GB GDDR5 memory with the GeForce GTX 1650, which are connected using a 128-bit memory interface. Interestingly, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey results, this GPU still remains the most popular choice among gamers. While the total addressable market is unknown with the exact number, it is fair to assume that a large group participates every month. The latest numbers for June 2023 indicate that the GeForce GTX 1650 is still the number one GPU, with 5.50% of the users having that GPU. The second closest one was GeForce RTX 3060, with 4.60%.

Other information in the survey remains similar, with CPUs mostly ranging from 2.3 GHz to 2.69 GHz in frequency and with six cores and twelve threads. Storage also recorded a small bump with capacity over 1 TB surging 1.48%, indicating that gamers are buying larger drives as game sizes get bigger.

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 mainstream graphics card slides a little closer to its ideal price, with an online retailer price-cut sending it down to $249, about $20 less than its MSRP of $269. The cheapest RX 7600 graphics card in the market right now is the MSI RX 7600 MECH 2X Classic, going for $249 on Amazon; followed by the XFX RX 7600 SWFT 210 at $258, and the ASRock RX 7600 Challenger at $259.99.

The sliding prices of the RX 7600 should improve its prospects against the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, which leaked 3DMark benchmarks show to be around 17% faster than the previous-generation RTX 3060 (12 GB) and 30% faster than its 8 GB variant. Our real-world testing puts the RX 7600 about 15% faster than the RTX 3060 (12 GB) at 1080p, which means there could be an interesting square-off between the RTX 4060 and RX 7600. NVIDIA has announced $299 as the baseline price for the RTX 4060, which should put pressure on AMD partners to trim prices of the RX 7600 to below the $250-mark.

NVIDIA is launching its lower end GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card series next week, but has kept schtum about the smaller Ada Lovelace AD107 GPU's performance level. This more budget-friendly offering (MSRP $299) is rumored to have 3,072 CUDA cores, 24 RT cores, 96 Tensor cores, 96 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It will likely sport 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus. Benchleaks has discovered the first set of test results via a database leak, and posted these details on social media earlier today. Two Geekbench 6 runs were conducted on a test system comprised of an Intel Core i5-13600K CPU, ASUS Z790 ROG APEX motherboard, DDR5-6000 memory and the aforementioned GeForce card.

The GPU Compute test utilizing the Vulkan API resulted in a score of 99419, and another using OpenCL achieved 105630. We are looking at a single sample here, so expect variations when other units get tested in Geekbench prior to the June 29 launch. The RTX 4060 is about 12% faster (in Vulkan) than its direct predecessor—RTX 3060. The gap widens with its Open CL performance, where it offers an almost 20% jump over the older card. The RTX 3060 Ti presents around 3-5% faster performance over the RTX 4060. We hope to see actual in-game benchmarking carried out soon.

A recent report published by BoardChannels points to Galax possibly implementing a broad set of price cuts across its range of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 and 30-series custom graphics card models. Insider information originating from sources within a pool of NVIDIA and AMD board partners suggests that Galax could be shaving off up to 1000 RMB (around $140) from certain Ampere and Ada Lovelace products - effective later this month in its native Hong Kong market as well as mainland China.

The article posits that GeForce RTX 4080 cards could end up becoming 1000 RMB cheaper, and popular RTX 3060 models receiving cuts of around 250 RMB (≈$35). Galax is reported to have already offered entry-level desktop GeForce RTX 3050 cards at lower prices in the latter half of May - with 140 RMB (≈$19.50) reductions. The RTX 4070 series is supposedly set to receive a measly discount of around 150 to 200 RMB (≈$21 to $28), which is likely not doing it many favors given slow worldwide uptake since the product range's launch in mid-April. Galax could be making adjustments to fall in line with rivals (in the region) who have already reduced asking prices for NVIDIA gaming hardware.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060, expected to make for a twin-launch in May 2023, will come with 8 GB as the standard memory size. This was confirmed in screenshots of a leaked listing of an MSI pre-built gaming desktop. The upcoming MSI MAG Infinite S3 comes with GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060 GPU options, both of which have been mentioned in the listing as featuring 8 GB of graphics memory. The CPU options span between the Intel Core i5-13400F and the i7-13700F. 16 GB (2x 8 GB) main memory, and 1 TB SSD are the other standard equipment.

An 8 GB memory size confirms the 128-bit memory interface of the "AD106" silicon the RTX 4060 series is expected to be based on. 8 GB would actually be a downgrade compared to the current RTX 3060, which offers 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit memory bus. To be fair, the RTX 3060 Ti gives you just 8 GB of memory (albeit over a 256-bit wide memory bus). With the "Ada" graphics architecture powering the RTX 40-series, NVIDIA has significantly redesigned the memory sub-system of the GPU, with greater design emphasis on large on-die caches, so the GPU relies less on discrete memory bandwidth.

An unreleased GeForce RTX 3060 "Super" graphics card surfaced on the web. The original and popular RTX 3060 falls short of maxing out the 8 nm "GA106" siicon it is based on, with 28 out of 30 streaming multiprocessors being enabled (that's 3,584 out of 3,840 CUDA cores). This odd-ball graphics card maxes the silicon out, enabling all 30 SM and 3,840 CUDA cores, 120 Tensor cores, 30 RT cores, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. This card reportedly has the ASIC code "GA106-400-A1" and device ID of 10DE-2501. The memory interface is still 192-bit wide, as is the memory speed of 15 Gbps (GDDR6-effective), and it has the same 12 GB of memory. Besides more shaders, the card has been given higher clock speeds than a production RTX 3060, with up to 1875 MHz boost, compared to 1777 MHz. Alas, this is one of many unofficial rare graphics cards that never went into production, and which NVIDIA doesn't officially support with driver updates.

Intel has released a couple of new performance slides for the Arc A750, claiming better performance per dollar than RTX 3060 with the latest driver update. Intel has been pushing hard to improve its Arc GPU drivers, both fixing issues, bringing Game On support, and performance improvements. The latest Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4311 beta update brought several Game On optimizations as well as some performance uplifts, mostly focused on the Arc A750 and DirectX 12, ranging from 4 percent up to 63 percent, depending on the game and the resolution.

Although the Arc A750 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory has less memory than the RTX 3060 which comes with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, bear in mind that the Arc A750 has a 256-bit memory interface compared to a 192-bit one on the RTX 3060 12 GB graphics card, leaving it with a higher 512 GB/s maximum memory bandwidth. The Intel Arc A750 is also less expensive, retailing at $249, compared to RTX 3060 12 GB, which sells at around $350.

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4148 beta comes with Game On (day-zero) optimization for Deceive Inc., and Diablo 4 (beta); and optimization for Sons of The Forest. It fixes an issue where Riftbreaker (DX12) Xbox Game Pass version exhibits a rare black line display corruption; and lower than expected performance for Resident Evil 4 Remake Chainsaw Demo (DX12). The company also took the opportunity to highlight that with recent price cuts for the Arc A750 down to $249, it offers anywhere between 54% to 76% higher performance-per-Dollar than the competing GeForce RTX 3060.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4148 beta

NVIDIA is preparing yet another variant of the GeForce RTX 3060 "Ampere" graphics card, by carving it out of the much larger "GA104" silicon. This SKU will feature 12 GB of faster 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory. Across a 192-bit memory bus, this yields an impressive 456 GB/s of memory bandwidth that's higher than the bandwidth of the original RTX 3070 with 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit memory bus (448 GB/s). From what we can tell, the core-configuration of the card remains the same, with 3,584 CUDA cores, 112 Tensor cores, 28 RT cores, 112 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. This SKU is carved out of the GA104 silicon by enabling 28 out of 48 SM (that's 58% of the available number-crunching machinery); and slashing down the memory interface by 25%.

ASUS today announced new versions of the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the Dual GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards that now feature GDDR6X memory for greater performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has been an excellent sweet spot between price and performance for the past generation of graphics cards, and it has now been improved. The GDDR6X memory further boosts the capabilities of the 3060 Ti and expands the options available to the discerning PC DIY builder. ASUS is also updating the GeForce RTX 3060 with a new model featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM to add even more possibilities for upgrading and assembling.

The ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB GDDR6X features the same triple Axial Tech fan design, solid aluminium backplate, and 2.7-slot form factor as its predecessor, as well as support for NVIDIA G-SYNC and GPU Tweak III. Supplementing that rock-solid foundation is the introduction of GDDR6X ultra-high-speed and error-correcting VRAM, setting up the GPU to deliver more frames per second than the previous iteration. A factory-overclocked version is also available, tuned in-house to make sure users get the absolute best performance right out of the box.

The Razer Blade 14, the world's most powerful 14" gaming laptop, is now available in a fresh new Mercury edition finish. This colorway combines the Mercury anodized aluminium chassis with a matte black keyboard for a truly striking aesthetic package. This new colorway is exclusive to two Blade 14 GPU configurations: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The addition of Mercury to the Blade 14 line marks the first time any Razer Blade is available in three different colorways simultaneously (Mercury, Quartz, and Black).

Along with the colorway release, a software update is now available for 2022 models of the Blade 14, upgrading the two Type-C USB-3.2 Gen 2 ports to USB4 and bringing support for Microsoft Pluton. USB4 expands peripheral compatibility, increasing device connectivity options and enabling multi-monitor deployments, support for Thunderbolt peripherals including Razer's Thunderbolt dock and Core X external graphics enclosures, and more. Microsoft Pluton's chip-to-cloud security technology protects users with an array of hardware-based security capabilities and services. New and existing 2022 Blade 14 owners should contact Razer Support to download this update.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 526.47 WHQL adds support for two new GPUs, namely the GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB, and the RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X, the two SKUs NVIDIA launched to improve its standing against the RX 6650 XT, RX 6600, and Arc 7-series. Among the game optimizations with this release are for "Sackboy: A Big Adventure," "Victoria 3," "WRC Generations," and DLSS 3 frame-generation support in F1 22. Among the handful issues fixed with this release are game map corruption in "Cyberpunk 2077," a crash and reboot issue noticed with the Dell XPS 9560; lower performance noticed in Minecraft Java Edition; the 165 Hz refresh-rate option not being available with Samsung Odyssey Ark monitors; GeForce Experience selecting the wrong display-head with Shadowplay; and certain online video artifacting noticed with NVIDIA Image Scaling enabled.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 526.47 WHQL

NVIDIA's add-in board partners today began quietly launching the GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB, a variant of the RTX 3060 with a third of its memory size and memory bus-width sawed off. The RTX 3060, NVIDIA's best-selling desktop graphics SKU from the RTX 30-series "Ampere," originally launched with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory bus, which at its reference speed of 15 Gbps (GDDR6-effective), makes 360 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The new variant comes with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a narrower 128-bit memory interface, with the same 15 Gbps data-rate, which works out to 240 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Besides memory size, bus-width, and bandwidth; NVIDIA hasn't tinkered with the core-configuration with the RTX 3060 8 GB. It still comes with 3,584 CUDA cores across 28 SM, which work out to 112 Tensor cores, 28 RT cores, 112 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. The GPU's base frequency is set at 1320 MHz, and boost frequency at 1777 MHz—same as the original RTX 3060. Even the typical graphics power is unchanged, at 170 W. The new 8 GB variant doesn't replace the original, but is being positioned a notch below it, possibly to compete against the likes of the Radeon RX 6600 (non-XT), and perhaps even the Arc A750.

Today, we shared our vision for the next era of the Windows PC, where the PC and the cloud intersect and tap into innovative AI technology that unlocks new experiences. So that each of us can participate, be seen, heard and express our creativity.

For nearly 40 years, the Windows PC has held a place at the center of our lives. It's contributed to new levels of productivity, kept us all connected, and unlocked our creativity and potential through innovations we couldn't have imagined when we first began this journey. Just think about how far we've come in how people interact with it. From the very first text-based keyboard input to the precision of point and click with the mouse, up to today, where touch, voice, pen and gestures all help people use the Windows PC more naturally and intuitively. From its inception, Surface has been a catalyst for that change.

The Intel Arc 7-series performance-segment graphics cards announced earlier this week, are all priced within $60 of each other. The series begins with the Arc A750 at USD $289. $40 more gets you the Arc A770 Limited Edition 8 GB, at $329. The top-of-the-line Arc A770 Limited Edition 16 GB is priced just $20 higher, at $349. This puts the Intel flagship at least $30 less than the cheapest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 available in the market right now, which can be had for $380. The dark horse here is the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, which is going for as low as $320.

Intel extensively compared the A770 to the RTX 3060 in its marketing materials, focusing on how its ray tracing performance is superior to even that of NVIDIA RTX in this segment, and that the Intel XeSS performance enhancement is technologically on-par with 2nd generation super-scaling techs such as FSR 2.0 and DLSS 2. If Intel's performance claims hold, the A770 has the potential to beat both the RTX 3060 and RX 6650 XT in its segment. The Arc A750, A770 8 GB, and A770 16 GB, go on sale from October 12. Stay tuned for our reviews.

NVIDIA is readying two new performance-segment graphics card SKUs to help it clear out inventory in the market-segment, as well as better position itself against the likes of the Intel Arc A770 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT. These include the GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti G6X. The RTX 3060 originally launched with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. The new RTX 3060 8 GB SKU is positioned below it, with a third of its memory sub-system pulled out—8 GB of GDDR6 across a 128-bit wide memory bus. This memory ticks at 15 Gbps (240 GB/s memory bandwidth). At this point we don't know if the CUDA core count is changed from the original RTX 3060 (3,584 CUDA cores).

The second SKU is the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti G6X. The original RTX 3060 Ti had launched with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory running at 14 Gbps (448 GB/s bandwidth). The new SKU has the same amount of memory at 8 GB, but with much faster GDDR6X memory that probably ticks at 19 Gbps (608 GB/s bandwidth). Again, we don't know if the CUDA core count has changed from the original's 4,864 CUDA cores. According to the source of this story, MEGAsizeGPU, NVIDIA could launch these two SKUs in October, which would put it just in time for shopping seasons like Cyber Monday. NVIDIA's next-gen RTX 40-series launch will take a "top-down" sequence, with the high-end SKUs launching first. It could either be late-2022 or early-2023 for NVIDIA to launch performance-segment SKUs, giving these two SKUs some time in market.

Intel on Thursday posted an article that dives deep into the ray tracing architecture of its Arc "Alchemist" GPUs, which are particularly relevant with performance-segment parts such as the Arc A770, which competes with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. In the article, Intel posted ray tracing performance numbers that put it at-par with, or faster than the RTX 3060, which which it has traditional raster performance parity. In theory, this would make Intel's ray tracing tech superior to that of AMD RDNA2, because while the AMD chips have raster performance parity, their ray tracing performance do not tend to be at par with NVIDIA parts at a price-segment level.

The Arc "Alchemist" GPUs meet the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set, and its ray tracing engine supports DXR 1.0, DXR 1.1, and Vulkan RT APIs. The Xe Core is the indivisible subunit of the GPU, and packs its main number-crunching machinery. Each Xe Core features a Thread Sorting Unit (TSU), and a Ray Tracing Unit (RTU). The TSU is responsible for scheduling work among the Xe Core and RTU, and is the core of Intel's "secret sauce." Each RTU has two ray traversal pipelines (fixed function hardware tasked with calculating ray intersections with intersections/BVH. The RTU can calculate 12 box intersections per cycle, 1 triangle intersection per cycle, and features a dedicated cache for BVH data.

Intel Graphics in an interview with PC Gamer on the sidelines of the 2022 IFA Berlin, claimed that the real-time ray tracing architecture of the Xe-HPG graphics architecture in the Arc A770 "Alchemist" graphics card is "competitive or better than" the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, and that the company plans to launch the card at an attractive price-point, to grab a slice of the very top of the gaming graphics market bell-curve. The RTX 3060 is a very successful GPU, especially with graphics card prices on the chill, and AMD is already competing with its Radeon RX 6650 XT, which can be spotted at lower prices. The RTX 3060 has been in the crosshairs of Intel Graphics marketing, in recent performance reveals for the A770.

"When you have a title that is optimized for Intel, in the sense that it runs well on DX12, you're gonna get performance that's significantly above an [RTX] 3060," said Tom Petersen with Intel Graphics. "When you have a title that is optimized for Intel, in the sense that it runs well on DX12, you're gonna get performance that's significantly above an [RTX] 3060. And this is A750 compared to a 3060, so 17%, 14%, 10%. It's going to vary of course based on the title," he said. "We're going to be a little bit faster but depending on your game and depending on your settings, it's trading blows, and that's the A750. Obviously, A770 is going to be a little bit faster. So when you add in DX11, you're gonna see our performance is a little less trading blows, and we're kind of behind in some cases, ahead in some cases, but more losses than wins at DX11," he added. While Intel is still non-committal about a launch date, although it stated that the Arc A770 and A750 will launch with an attractive "introductory pricing."