Alleged Intel Arc Alchemist Laptop GPUs Detailed In Mobile Specs Roundup

intel arc alchemist render angled
If Intel's statements at CES 2022 are anything to go by, we're probably going to see its Arc Alchemist discrete GPUs appearing in laptops before we'll see them in desktop form. That date could be as soon as next week, in fact, but it also could be later; we don't actually know.

If you're hungry for info on the final configurations of Intel's first discrete GPUs in two decades, well, we've already reported on the rumored specifications several times before. Now it seems that we have probable confirmation of some those specs in what appears to be a very legitimate-looking Intel slide from known leaker HXL (known as @9550Pro on Twitter).

leaked intel dg2 memory chart hxl
Image from @9550Pro on Twitter.

The slide, reproduced above, appears to lay out the memory configuration of all of the laptop forms of "DG2," otherwise known as Arc Alchemist. Nothing here is a particular surprise, aside from perhaps that the lowest-end Arc Alchemist part will be even slower than Navi 24. Those two bottom-end parts, SKU4 and SKU5, are likely based on a smaller die than the higher-end parts, which are expected to use a form, either full or cut-down, of the larger DG2-512 die.

Olrak, another familiar name in the hardware rumors circuit, took this latest information and made the chart below. Click it if you can't read it. This chart compiles essentially all of what we know (or thinks we know) about Intel's DG2 "Alchemist" GPU products. Again, there's really not a lot of new information here, but it's nice to see it all in a neat format like this.

olrakchart edited
Image from @Olrak29_ on Twitter.

In theory, this makes it easy to draw comparisons against competitors' hardware, but there's still a couple of really big unknowns. The first and perhaps most important are the kinds of clock rates that these chips can maintain under load. We've seen a few results, and a few rumors, putting these chips around 2 GHz, but those were in desktop form. It's difficult to guess what kind of performance we'll see in a laptop.

The other factor that remains to be confirmed is Intel's driver quality. We've already seen encouraging progress on this front with Intel's drivers for its integrated solutions, but supporting a powerful and power-thirsty discrete GPU like the DG2 SKU1 is a whole different ball game. It will be fascinating to see how these cards perform once we get one in-hand, and you'll know as soon as we do.