Intel's elusive Arc platform has been in the pipeline for years, and for most of that time it has been largely shrouded in mystery. But with the official release of the new Intel Alchemist GPUs just around the corner, the time is finally here for Intel's official return to the dedicated GPU space. This is the first dedicated GPU platform that Intel has created since the late 1990s – when they launched their first and only GPU, the i740 AGP graphics card. With the launch of the Intel Arc A380 (released in June), first impressions of the Arc range have been nothing to write home about, but the excitement for Intel's GPUs remains. This is a testament to the fact that industry watchers are excited about the fact that Intel's foray into the space could finally end the decades-long duopoly of Nvidia and AMD. So what is Intel's Arc platform? And can it compete with Nvidia or AMD Radeon GPUs? Let's find out.

Hype aside, what we want to do through this article is to objectively explore the various aspects of the Arc series, from its architecture and specifications to its performance and flagship features. Arc GPUs are said to be the next step in graphics architecture, and for that alone they deserve a technical deep dive. We also want to see how Intel Arc graphics compare to Nvidia or AMD Radeon GPUs.

Now, it's going to be a bit tough to analyze these aspects of the Arc graphics range, as a lot of information is still uncertain (Intel has been quite reserved with the details), but the last few months have been kind to us. We've had a variety of leaks from various sources that have told us a lot about the new GPUs. Also, with the sprinkling of important details about the architecture from Intel, we can finally have enough information to make some assumptions about what to expect from Arc processors in terms of performance and features. Now, if you want answers to any specific questions, navigate to them using the table below.

The first reaction we got when Intel showed off its dedicated GPU all the way back in 2020 was a sense of confusion. Like us, most PC enthusiasts wondered why Intel, a leader in the CPU market at the time, would take this radical leap into the discrete GPU space.