In a recent Moore’s Law Is Dead YouTube video, the host discusses the upcoming Intel product with leaked information pertaining to the 128 Execution Units version. Specifically, it seems as though the 128EU model will have 6 GB of GDDR6 RAM over a 96-bit bus for the desktop card, and 64-bit for laptop. The video goes on to explain that if it does have 6 GB instead of 8 GB, and is running on lower power than other cards, this could bring the price of this model to around $179 due to it being cheaper to manufacturer. It’s also possible it could sell for cheaper than that, but these are not confirmed prices at this stage.
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In terms of spec comparisons, Moore’s Law Is Dead believes that the Intel Alchemist 128EU could be as good as, if not better than, the Nvidia GTX 1650 which was released last April. In general, it seems like this variant of the Arc model will be a welcome and cheap GPU for those who are on the lookout for a new graphics card, but are not willing to pay for some of the high spec products by Nvidia and AMD.
The Intel Alchemist desktop cards are expected in Q2 2022, though there is no official release date as of this article going live. There are also some laptop versions coming sooner, which will supposedly hit the market sometime after the holidays. In general, it seems the CPU tech giant is gunning for the low end of the graphics card market, as well as trying to muscle in on some of the beefier cards.
However, this is all down to whether customers will be able to get hold of any Intel, Nvidia, or AMD product by the time new hardware starts coming out. With Intel’s own CEO believing the shortages could go on until 2023, there’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment about how companies are going to be able to get their products into the hands of consumers. Hopefully things will begin to improve by mid-2022.
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