Intel’s Arc Druid graphics cards, which would be the 4th-gen models, following on in alphabetical order from 1st-gen Alchemist, could be out in 2025, an employee has hinted – meaning that Intel could set a seriously fast pace for releasing new product lines in the GPU world.
This comes from VideoCardz, which spotted a tweet from Intel’s Arc Community Advocate and Driver Guru, who posted regarding the relative importance of components in a PC build, to which somebody replied with a joke about Nvidia’s RTX 6000 series being out in 2025 with colossal wattage demands.
If all goes well, that could be when Intel ARC ‘Druid’ cards come out… game on ??November 23, 2021
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As you can see, Bryce took the opportunity to tease the possibility that Intel might just have Druid GPUs launched in that year, all being well.
While we obviously have to take that with huge piles of condiments, it does seem to indicate that Intel’s plan is to get a new generation of graphics cards out every year.
We have Arc Alchemist coming early in 2022, or at least mobile versions, followed by desktop GPUs in Q2 according to the rumor mill, and if Druid is slated for 2025, that means Battlemage and Celestial, the generations in-between as confirmed by Intel’s official roadmap, will slot in for 2023 and 2024 – in theory.
Indeed, Battlemage has already been rumored to start weaving its magic in 2023 going by the GPU grapevine.
Analysis: Going big to challenge AMD and Nvidia?
Now, as you’re probably aware, AMD and Nvidia don’t push out new graphics cards every year, but rather every couple of years or so (roughly, anyway – though AMD didn’t have quite such a large gap between the RX 5000 and RX 6000 launches).
If Intel does indeed intend to deploy a new generation every single year, that’s quite a goal to reach for, and it indicates how hard Team Blue is going to drive to attack the two existing GPU makers. And it makes sense in that Intel will have to try hard to make an impression, grab some initial market share and push from there.
Obviously it’s not quite as simple as the more generations you make, the merrier, but this potential roadmap does suggest an intense pace of development, which has to be looked on positively in terms of Intel’s chances.
Moreover, we’ve also heard from the rumor mill that Intel is looking at some pretty affordable pricing at the entry-level with Alchemist graphics cards, and this also seems to point to an intention to really throw everything the firm has at challenging both AMD and Nvidia.
Which, ultimately, has to be great news for the consumer; indeed, even having more choice out there will be a massive positive next year given the ongoing issues around GPU stock.
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