We still don’t have a solid release date for Intel’s upcoming Arc Alchemist graphics cards, but we now at least know they’ll be launching before the end of October, or at the very least one of their mid-range/high-end models will be launching by then, coinciding with the official launch of their Intel XeSS AI upscaler technology…
In the latest technology deep dive from Intel, the team shows off their XeSS upscaler tech running in many of the latest modern titles. The results are pretty impressive, at least in terms of the performance improvements (as YouTube compression makes it hard to identify artifacts in the actual quality).
So how do we know that they’ll be launching by the end of October? Well, Intel XeSS will be debuting for mass audiences with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which launches on October 28th. And, as “Intel Fellow” Tom Petersen states, the launch of XeSS will coincide with the release of Intel Arc Alchemist.
So how well does XeSS perform then exactly? During a specific scene in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which achieved 41fps at Native (at 1440p with Max settings and ray tracing enabled) on an Arc A770, XeSS Ultra Quality improved frame rate by 32% up to 54fps. The lowest quality, Performance mode, improved by exactly 100% up to 82fps.
Intel Arc A770 XeSS Balanced quality benchmark
Intel Arc A770 XeSS Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark
As for how many other titles will include XeSS at launch (either by GPU launch or game release) there are 21 games in total. COD MW2 will be the first game to get official support for it, but some other upcoming titles like Gotham Knights or already released games like Hitman 3, GhostWire: Tokyo, and more.
What do you think? Are you excited for the Intel Arc Alchemist launch? How do you feel about it launching so late? How do you feel about the XeSS performance improvements? Let us know your thoughts!
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PC Specs
I might honestly upgrade to this card if the prices arnt bad due to inflation in canada. 30 series cards were suspoed to be under 400 and they are atleast 500 or more so.
PC Specs
Totally off-topic but has anyone seen the asus AM5 x670E itx board the thing looks like an abomination. Half of the board is external/daughter boards (second chipset/audio/sata). You know, a logical person would have gone yeah maybe shoving 2 chipsets worth of IO into an itx board is dumb/expensive...(also the best they could do was 2,5G lan)
PC Specs
So originally their top card (A780) was going to be a 2080ti/3070 competitor. now what they have (A770) will have lower performance and another generation behind. looking at around RTX4050 performance.
PC Specs
Even if their first 2-3 generations aren't the most competitive, I'm glad that there are now three competitors in the GPU market.
PC Specs
yeah but they missed the launch horribly where they could have saved all of us, and gotten themselves massive income and funding for the next gen, even with their worse performing cards compared to team red and green during the mining craze, just how they initially told us
PC Specs
There is nothing to save, they are using TSMC too, so it wouldn't have been extra stock.