Intel Arc is launching soon, but only in China

Intel’s much-anticipated return to the GPU scene has hit some snags recently. The Intel Arc GPUs have been delayed, yet again but it seems like the Arc A-Series powered desktops are still on track for a Q2 release in China.

“We will release our entry-level Intel Arc A-series products for desktops (A3) first in China through system builders and OEMs in Q2,” said visual compute group VP Lisa Pearce in a blog post. “Etail and retail component sales will follow shortly in China as well. Proximity to board components and strong demand for entry-level discrete products makes this a natural place to start. Our next step will be to scale these products globally.”

The “will follow shortly” timeframe for component sales doesn’t inspire much hope that they’ll also release in Q2. Intel is likely looking at a staggered Q3 release for the A-Series throughout the end of summer going into the fall. In China, that is.

It’s not all bad news for Intel. Laptops with Arc 3 mobile graphics have already started to hit the market in places, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro or the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro series of notebooks. Intel says gaming laptops with Intel Arc 5 and Arc 6 graphics cards should start appearing by early summer. 

Regarding desktop cards, the post says that the worldwide rollout of the Intel Arc A5 and A7 GPUs is still set for late summer after being delayed from July to August. Intel didn’t specify whether this late summer release means we’ll see Arc prebuilts, components, or both by them. 

These delays are no doubt bad for Intel as the company hoped to launch its flagship cards ahead of Nvidia and AMD, which have their own cards launching in the next few months.