Intel Arc

Intel Arc is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Intel. These are discrete GPUs mostly marketed for the high-margin gaming PC market. The brand also covers Intel's consumer graphics software and services.

Intel Arc

Release date	March 30, 2022 (2022-03-30)[1]
Manufactured by	TSMC
Designed by	Intel
Marketed by	Intel
Codenames	Alchemist Battlemage Celestial Druid
Architecture	Intel Xe
Cores	Up to 32 Xe cores
Transistors	Up to 21.7 billion
Fabrication process	TSMC N5 TSMC N6
Cards
Entry-level	Arc 3
Mid-range	Arc 5
High-end	Arc 7
API support
DirectX	Direct3D 12.0 Ultimate (feature level 12_2) Shader Model 6.7
OpenCL	OpenCL 3.0[a]
OpenGL	OpenGL 4.6
Vulkan	Vulkan 1.3
History
Predecessor	i740 Intel Iris Xe

Arc competes with Nvidia's GeForce and AMD's Radeon lines.^[2] The Arc-A series for laptops was launched on March 30, 2022, with the A750 and A770 both released in Q3 2022.^[3][4][5] Intel missed their initial Q2 2022 release target, with most discrete Arc GPUs not launching until October 2022.^[6]

Intel officially launched the Arc Pro workstation GPUs on August 8, 2022.^[7][8]

Intel officially announced the 2nd-generation Battlemage GPUs on December 3rd, 2024.^[9][10] The first model, the B580, was released on December 13th, 2024.

Etymology

According to Intel, the brand is named after the concept of story arcs found in video games.^[11] Each generation of Arc is named after character classes sorted by each letter of the Latin alphabet in ascending order. They begin with A, then B, then C, and so on. The first generation is named Alchemist, while Battlemage, Celestial and Druid are the respective names for the second, third and fourth Arc generations.^[12]

Graphics processor generations

Alchemist

An Intel Arc A770 16 GB, the highest-end desktop GPU from Intel's first generation Alchemist GPUs, with a Rubik's Cube for scale

Developed under the previous codename "DG2", the first generation of Intel Arc GPUs (codenamed "Alchemist") released on March 30, 2022.^[1][13] It comes in both add-on desktop card and laptop form factors. TSMC manufactures the die, using their N6 process.^[14]

Alchemist uses the Intel Xe GPU architecture, or more specifically, the Xe-HPG variant. Alchemist supports hardware-based ray tracing, XeSS or supersampling based on neural networks (similar to Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR), and DirectX 12 Ultimate.^[1][15] Also supported are DisplayPort 2.0 and overclocking. AV1 fixed-function hardware encoder is included in Alchemist GPUs as part of the Intel Quick Sync Video core.^[16]

Intel confirmed ASTC support has been removed from hardware starting with Alchemist and future Arc GPU microarchitectures will also not support it.^[17]

Arc Alchemist does not support SR-IOV^[18] or Direct3D 9 natively, instead falling back on the D3D9On12 wrapper which translates Direct3D 9 calls to their Direct3D 12 equivalents.^[19][20]

Arc support OpenCL 3.0^{[note 1]} for example, this GPU can work in the grid World Community Grid.^[21]

Display connections: DisplayPort 2.0 (40 Gbit/s bandwidth) and HDMI 2.1

Desktop

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Overview of Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs

Branding and Model[22]		Launch	MSRP (USD)	Code name	Process	Transistors (billion)	Die size (mm2)	Core config [b]	L2 cache	Clock rate (MHz)[c]	Fillrate		Memory					Processing power (TFLOPS)			TDP	Bus interface
											Pixel (GP/s)	Texture (GT/s)	Type	Size (GB)	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus width	Clock (MT/s)	Half precision (base)	Single precision (base)	Double precision (base)
Arc 3	A310	Sep 28, 2022	$110	ACM-G11 (DG2-128)	TSMC N6	7.2	157	6 Xe cores 768:32:16:6 (192:96:2)	4 MB	2000 2000	32	64	GDDR6	4 GB	124	64-bit	15500	6.144	3.072	n/a	75 W	PCIe 4.0 x8
	A380	Jun 14, 2022	$139					8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (256:128:2)		2000 2050	64 65.6	128 131.2		6 GB	186	96-bit		8.192 8.3968	4.096 4.1984	n/a n/a
Arc 5	A580	Oct 10, 2023	$179	ACM-G10 (DG2-512)		21.7	406	24 Xe cores 3072:192:96:24 (768:384:6)	8 MB	1700 1700	163.2	326.4		8 GB	512	256-bit	16000	20.890	10.445	n/a	175 W	PCIe 4.0 x16
Arc 7	A750	Oct 14, 2022	$289					28 Xe cores 3584:224:112:28 (896:448:7)	16 MB	2050 2400	229.6 268.8	393.6 460.8						29.3888 34.4064	14.6944 17.2032	n/a n/a	225 W
	A770 8GB		$329					32 Xe cores 4096:256:128:32 (1024:512:8)		2100 2400	268.8 307.2	537.6 614.4						34.4064 39.3216	17.2032 19.6608	n/a n/a
	A770 16GB		$349											16 GB	560		17500

1. In OpenCL 3.0, OpenCL 1.2 functionality has become a mandatory baseline, while all OpenCL 2.x and OpenCL 3.0 features were made optional.
2. Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
      (tensor cores (XMX): execution units: render slices)
3. Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.

Mobile

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Overview of Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs for mobile devices

Branding and Model[23]		Launch	Code name	Process	Transistors (billion)	Die size (mm2)	Core config[a][b]	L2 cache	Core clock (MHz)[c]	Fillrate[d]		Memory					Processing power (TFLOPS)			TDP	Bus interface
										Pixel (GP/s)	Texture (GT/s)	Type	Size	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus width	Clock (MT/s)	Half precision	Single precision	Double precision
Arc 3	A350M	Mar 30, 2022	ACM-G11 (DG2-128)	TSMC N6	7.2	157	6 Xe cores 768:48:24:6 (96:96:2)	4 MB	1150 2200	27.6 52.8	55.2 105.6	GDDR6	4 GB	112	64-bit	14000	3.5328 6.7584	1.7664 3.3792	0.4416 0.8448	25–35 W	PCIe 4.0 ×8
	A370M						8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (128:128:2)		1550 2050	49.6 65.6	99.2 131.2						6.3488 8.3968	3.1744 4.1984	0.7936 1.0496	35–50 W
Arc 5	A530M	Q3 2023	ACM-G12 (DG2-256)				12 Xe cores 1536:96:48:12 (192:192:3)	8 MB	1300				4 GB 8 GB	224	128-bit					65–95 W
	A550M	Q2 2022	ACM-G10 (DG2-512)		21.7	406	16 Xe cores 2048:128:64:16 (256:256:4)		900 1700	57.6 108.8	115.2 217.6		8 GB				7.3728 13.9264	3.6864 6.9632	0.9216 1.7408	60–80 W
	A570M	Q3 2023	ACM-G12 (DG2-256)						1300											75–95 W
Arc 7	A730M	Q2 2022	ACM-G10 (DG2-512)		21.7	406	24 Xe cores 3072:192:96:24 (384:384:6)	12 MB	1100 2050	105.6 196.8	211.2 393.6		12 GB	336	192-bit		13.5168 25.1904	6.7584 12.5952	1.6896 3.1488	80–120 W	PCIe 4.0 ×16
	A770M						32 Xe cores 4096:256:128:32 (512:512:8)	16 MB	1650 2050	211.2 262.4	422.4 524.8		16 GB	512	256-bit	16000	27.0336 33.5872	13.5168 16.7936	3.3792 4.1984	120–150 W

1. Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
      (tensor cores (XMX): execution units: render slices)
2. Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
3. Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
4. Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.

Workstation

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Overview of Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs for Workstations

Branding and Model[24]		Launch	Code name	Process	Transistors (billion)	Die size (mm2)	Core config[a]	L2 cache	Core clock (MHz)[b]	Fillrate[c][d]		Memory					Processing power (TFLOPS)			TDP	Bus interface
										Pixel (GP/s)	Texture (GT/s)	Type	Size	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus width	Clock (MT/s)	Half precision	Single precision	Double precision
Arc Pro	A30M	Aug 8, 2022	ACM-G11 (DG2-128)	TSMC N6	7.2	157	8 Xe cores 1024:64:32:8 (128:128:2)	4 MB	1550			GDDR6	4 GB	112	64-bit	14000		4.20[24]		50 W	PCIe 4.0 x8
	A40												6 GB	192	96-bit	16000		5.02[24]
	A50								2050											75 W
	A60M	June 6, 2023	ACM-G12 (DG2-256)				16 Xe cores 2048:128:64:16 (256:256:4)		1300				8 GB	256	128-bit			9.42[24]		95 W	PCIe 4.0 x16
	A60								2000				12 GB	384	192-bit			10.04[24]		130 W

1. Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
      (tensor cores (XMX): execution Units: render slices)
2. Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
3. Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.
4. Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.

Battlemage

Battlemage (X^e2) is the second-generation X^e architecture that debuted with its low power variant in Lunar Lake mobile processors that released in September 2024.^[25] On December 3, 2024, Intel announced two Arc B-Series desktop graphics cards based on the X^e2-HPG graphics architecture.^[26]

Desktop

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Overview of Intel Arc Battlemage GPUs

Branding and Model[27]		Released	MSRP (USD)	Code name	Transistors (billion)	Die size (mm2)	Core		Cache		Memory					Fillrate[a][b]		Processing power (TFLOPS)			TDP	Bus interface
							Config[c]	Clock (MHz)[d]	L1	L2	Type	Size	Clock rate (Gb/s)	Band- width (GB/s)	Bus width	Pixel (Gpx/s)	Texture (Gtex/s)	Half precision (base)	Single precision (base)	Double precision (base)
Arc 5	B570	Jan 16, 2025	$219	BMG-G21	19.6	272 mm2	18 Xe Cores (144) 2304:144:72:18:144	1700 2500	4.5 MB	10 MB	GDDR6	10 GB	19.0	380	160-bit	122.4 200.0	244.8 360.0	23.04	11.52	1.44	150 W	PCIe 4.0 x8
	B580	Dec 13, 2024	$249				20 Xe Cores (160) 2560:160:80:20:160	1700 2670	5 MB	12 MB		12 GB		456	192-bit	136.0 213.6	272.0 427.2	27.34	13.67	1.709	190 W

1. Pixel fillrate is calculated as the number of render output units (ROPs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
2. Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
3. X^e2-HPG Cores (X^e Vector Engines)
   Unified Shaders : Texture Mapping Units : Render Output Units : Ray Tracing Cores : XMX Cores
4. Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italics.

Workstation

• v
• t
• e

Overview of Intel Arc Battlemage GPUs for Workstations

Branding and Model[28]		Launch	Code name	Process	Transistors (billion)	Die size (mm2)	Core config[a]	L2 cache	Core clock (MHz)[b]	Fillrate[c][d]		Memory					Processing power (TFLOPS)			TDP	Bus interface
										Pixel (GP/s)	Texture (GT/s)	Type	Size	Bandwidth (GB/s)	Bus width	Clock (MT/s)	Half precision	Single precision	Double precision
Arc Pro	B50	Q3 2025		TSMC N5			16 Xe cores ?:?:?:16 (128:128:4)		2600			GDDR6	16 GB	224	128-bit	14000				70 W	PCIe 5.0 x8
	B60						20 Xe cores ?:?:?:20 (160:160:5)		2400				24 GB	456	192-bit	19000				200 W

1. Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
      (tensor cores (XMX): execution Units: render slices)
2. Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
3. Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.
4. Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.

Future generations

Intel also revealed future generations of Intel Arc GPUs under development: Celestial (X^e3), and Druid (X^e4).^[29][5]

Intel revealed that Meteor Lake and later generations of CPU SoCs uses an Intel Arc Tile GPU.^[30][31]

Intel XeSS

Intel XeSS is a real-time deep learning image upsampling technology developed primarily for use in video games as a competitor to Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR technologies. Additionally, XeSS is not restricted to Arc graphics cards. It utilizes XMX instructions exclusive to Arc graphics cards, but will fall back to utilizing DP4a instructions on competing GPUs that have support for DP4a instructions. XeSS is trained with 64 samples per pixel as opposed to Nvidia DLSS's 16 samples per pixel (16K reference images).^[32][33]

Standard XeSS quality presets^[34]

Quality preset[a]	Scale factor[b]	Render scale[c]	Scale factor[b] (1.0-1.2)	Render scale[c] (1.0-1.2)
Native Anti-Aliasing(since 1.3)	1.00x(since 1.3)	100%	N/A
Ultra Quality Plus(since 1.3)	1.30x(since 1.3)	77.0%
Ultra Quality	1.50×(since 1.3)	66.7%	1.30x	77.0%
Quality	1.70×(since 1.3)	58.8%	1.50x	66.7%
Balanced	2.00×(since 1.3)	50.0%	1.70x	58.8%
Performance	2.30×(since 1.3)	43.5%	2.00x	50.0%
Ultra Performance(since 1.3)	3.00×(since 1.3)	33.3%	N/A

1. The algorithm does not necessarily need to be implemented using these presets; it is possible for the implementer to define custom input and output resolutions.
2. The linear scale factor used for upsampling the input resolution to the output resolution. For example, a scene rendered at 540p with a 2.00× scale factor would have an output resolution of 1080p.
3. The linear render scale, compared to the output resolution, that the technology uses to render scenes internally before upsampling. For example, a 1080p scene with a 50% render scale would have an internal resolution of 540p.

Issues

Drivers

Performance on Intel Arc GPUs has suffered from poor driver support, particularly at launch. An investigation by Gamers Nexus discovered 43 known driver issues with Arc GPUs, prompting a response and acknowledgement of the issues from Intel.^[35][36][37] Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also blamed driver problems as a reason for Arc's delayed launch.^[38] A beta driver from October 2022 accidentally reduced the memory clock by 9% on the Arc A770 from 2187 MHz to 2000 MHz, resulting in a 17% reduction in memory bandwidth.^[39] This particular issue was later fixed.^[40] Intel provides an open source driver for Linux.^[41]

DirectX 9 compatibility

As of the Alchemist generation, Arc only includes direct hardware support for the DirectX 11 & 12 and Vulkan graphics APIs, with the older DirectX 9 & 10 and OpenGL APIs being supported via a real-time compatibility layer built into Intel's graphics driver.^[42] As a result, Alchemist GPUs perform noticeably worse than competing Nvidia and AMD GPUs in software that can only use these older APIs, including multiple DirectX 9-based esports games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.^[43] There is also a performance gap between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12.

A December 2022 driver update improved Arc compatibility and performance with DirectX 9-based games.^[44] According to Intel, the driver update made Arc GPUs up to 1.8x faster in DirectX 9 games.^[45] A February 2023 driver update further improved Arc's performance on DirectX 9-based games.^[46]

Legacy BIOS compatibility

Intel Arc requires a UEFI BIOS with resizable BAR support for optimal performance.^[47] UEFI Class 1 and Class 2 BIOS are not supported by Intel Arc.

Footnotes

1. In OpenCL 3.0, OpenCL 1.2 functionality has become a mandatory baseline, while all OpenCL 2.x and OpenCL 3.0 features were made optional.