Take a look at Intel's Alchemist, the mascot for its first Arc GPUs

[midian182]

In context: Last month saw Intel officially announce its discreet graphics card brand aimed at consumers—Intel Arc. The codenames of the first and future hardware generations seem to be taken straight from a D&D game, and now we have a a better look at the official mascot for the first Arc GPU lineup: the Alchemist.

In an interview with HotHardware, Intel Senior Director of Graphics Product Marketing, Martyn Stroeve, and Senior Manager Graphics Tech Analysis, Scott Wasson, explained the thinking behind the Arc branding, including the inspiration for its name. Stroeve explains that the term was chosen because it has multiple meanings, including an energy connection between two points, a vessel, and a story arc.

Intel's codenames for its next-gen Xe-HPG lineup could have come from an RPG's character selection screen: Alchemist, Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid. Alchemists, who attempted to change common metals into gold, are a common sight in role-playing games, as are druids. Battlemage, meanwhile, is best known as a class in various Elder Scrolls games, and Marvel fans will recognize the Celestials as the god-like creatures that have appeared in the comics since the 1970s. They created the Eternals and the Deviants, both of which appear in the upcoming Marvel's Eternals movie.

Choose your Intel character

Intel had given us a sneak peek at the design of the characters (above) during last month's Architecture Day 2021 presentation. In the HotHardware interview, Stroeve released a larger image of the Alchemist mascot. He also suggested Intel could launch merchandise such as t-shirts featuring its Arc characters. Such a practice is common among many companies; MSI has a slew of products featuring its Dragon Lucky mascot, including figures, key rings, and hats.

Intel's Arc line is an exciting prospect for gamers, with the first Alchemist series rumored to be powerful enough to rival the RTX 3070 and AMD's Radeon 6800 XT when it launches early next year. The company also has its AI-powered super sampling solution—Xe Super Sampling (XeSS)—to take on Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR, and the Arc drivers will include built-in overclocking tools.

All images: HotHardware

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91093-take-look-intel-alchemist-mascot-first-arc-gpus.html

 

[Dimitriid]

It's look like one of your thought characters from Disco Elysium, I like it.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I really hope Intel can do what AMD cant and give Nvidia some good competition.

 

[veLa]

I appreciate the new competition in the graphics field. If only Intel was using their own fabs to alleviate the strain on everyone else.

 

[James Ryan]

A new player enters the game! Fantastic! I really hope this stimulates the market prices and innovation.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I really hope Intel can do what AMD cant and give Nvidia some good competition.

The competition is there. The pricing is not, it seems to be all over the place depending on where you live.

Folks in some parts of the world say Nvidia cards sit on the shelves and are available, but they're priced $100/200/300+ over AMD's offerings.

Then in the States you have the opposite. AMD cards tend to sit on the shelves and are priced $100/200/300+ over Nvidia cards.

Then folks claim that Nvidia cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.
Then folks claim AMD cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.

6600XT > 3060 (except at 4k, they are on par)
6700XT = 3060Ti
6800 > 3070
6800 = 3070Ti
6800XT = 3080
6800XT < 3080Ti
6900XT basically on par with the 3080Ti/3090

I don't see how your comment about how AMD can't give good competition is true.

 

[Sausagemeat]

The competition is there. The pricing is not, it seems to be all over the place depending on where you live.

Folks in some parts of the world say Nvidia cards sit on the shelves and are available, but they're priced $100/200/300+ over AMD's offerings.

Then in the States you have the opposite. AMD cards tend to sit on the shelves and are priced $100/200/300+ over Nvidia cards.

Then folks claim that Nvidia cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.
Then folks claim AMD cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.

6600XT > 3060 (except at 4k, they are on par)
6700XT = 3060Ti
6800 > 3070
6800 = 3070Ti
6800XT = 3080
6800XT < 3080Ti
6900XT basically on par with the 3080Ti/3090

I don't see how your comment about how AMD can't give good competition is true.

Where I live Radeons are available pretty close to MSRP but GeForce is marked up and always sold out. I can understand why because you would have to be a complete and total lunatic to pick Radeon over GeForce today. The game I want an upgrade for the most is Minecraft so I can use all the RTX packs. So for me Radeon isn’t an option. Also I’m currently using an RX 480 and I’m done with AMDs appalling driver support. Too many glitches, flickering, black screens, poor optimisation etc.

I hope Intel can provide GPUs that can do modern things like ray tracing but without all the frustrating issues that come with Radeons awful drivers!

 

[Geralt]

I like the arrival of a new contender. However, it's Intel, another company with a bad soul (like Nvidia). To have two companies like that is making me dubious.

 

[Fazain]

I hope it will break the AMD Nvidia douoply chip shortage/scalper lame excuses to charge more let see what Intel delivers.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Where I live Radeons are available pretty close to MSRP but GeForce is marked up and always sold out. I can understand why because you would have to be a complete and total lunatic to pick Radeon over GeForce today. The game I want an upgrade for the most is Minecraft so I can use all the RTX packs. So for me Radeon isn’t an option. Also I’m currently using an RX 480 and I’m done with AMDs appalling driver support. Too many glitches, flickering, black screens, poor optimisation etc.

I hope Intel can provide GPUs that can do modern things like ray tracing but without all the frustrating issues that come with Radeons awful drivers!

I know folks using AMD cards, last gen and current gen - they're not having driver issues.

However, as it stands, anyone that claims driver issues are a problem on AMD or Nvidia need to understand that not all drivers will function properly with all the massive amounts of hardware/firmware/software/drivers that everyone has in their own system. Sometimes you'll have driver issues out the a$s with a card or cards from Nvidia or AMD and other times you won't.

I've never personally ran an AMD/ATI card in all my years. Nvidia always had a product that fell in my price range and I've stuck with what worked. I have had a slew of driver issues over the years with Nvidia, though. Ranging from flickering screens, video playback issues, monitors not waking up from sleep, drivers crashing in games, graphical anomalies and even fan controller issues.

If AMD card prices weren't jacked in the States, I would have happily purchased a 6700XT or 6800 at MSRP. But now that 6700XT and 6800 series cards are nearly $300+ or more over MSRP and if I get lucky (which I have) I could save a lot getting a 3060Ti (which I got for $470) or a 3070 for $700-800. It would be stupid to spend $800 on a 6700XT when the 3070 is priced the same or lower at times and it walks all over the 6700XT.

Right now, sounds like it just sucks that you're stuck having to base a purchase for one particular brand of GPU for a single game you like to play due to proprietary software. Hopefully, in your case, you get what you're looking for soon. However, I still stand by saying that AMD gives good competition to Nvidia this generation.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I know folks using AMD cards, last gen and current gen - they're not having driver issues.

However, as it stands, anyone that claims driver issues are a problem on AMD or Nvidia need to understand that not all drivers will function properly with all the massive amounts of hardware/firmware/software/drivers that everyone has in their own system. Sometimes you'll have driver issues out the a$s with a card or cards from Nvidia or AMD and other times you won't.

I've never personally ran an AMD/ATI card in all my years. Nvidia always had a product that fell in my price range and I've stuck with what worked. I have had a slew of driver issues over the years with Nvidia, though. Ranging from flickering screens, video playback issues, monitors not waking up from sleep, drivers crashing in games, graphical anomalies and even fan controller issues.

If AMD card prices weren't jacked in the States, I would have happily purchased a 6700XT or 6800 at MSRP. But now that 6700XT and 6800 series cards are nearly $300+ or more over MSRP and if I get lucky (which I have) I could save a lot getting a 3060Ti (which I got for $470) or a 3070 for $700-800. It would be stupid to spend $800 on a 6700XT when the 3070 is priced the same or lower at times and it walks all over the 6700XT.

Right now, sounds like it just sucks that you're stuck having to base a purchase for one particular brand of GPU for a single game you like to play due to proprietary software. Hopefully, in your case, you get what you're looking for soon. However, I still stand by saying that AMD gives good competition to Nvidia this generation.

I studied computer science at university (no idea why lol) and I’ve been building gaming PCs for about 20 years. I’ve owned loads of Radeon cards. I’m completely done with them. The driver issues are widespread and real, check any forum and youl see. Just last year we had reports of the black screen bug everywhere.

I’ve given up hope that Radeon will compete with Nvidia. We always hope for that and we never really get it. I think the last time they truly were competitive was in 2013 when the 290X came out. After that it’s all been very dour from AMD.

Ive got more hope in Intel tbh.

 

[KaitouX]

6600XT > 3060 (except at 4k, they are on par)

6600XT < 3060 Ti would be the correct one. The 6600XT is priced to compete against the 3060Ti MSRP wise, and as you said current street prices vary wildly from one region to another so comparing that doesn't make much sense.
Overall RDNA2 is too expensive, maybe due to the higher GDDR6 memory capacity, but it is priced to parity to Nvidia GPUs based on performance, but it lacks many features to make it worth buying for many people and the extra memory isn't important for many, but obviously current street prices make this irrelevant.
Personally, after I saw the pricing on the first AMD GPUs of this generation, I got a 3060Ti on release date without even considering a future AMD equivalent, I expected it would probably have similar fps/$ and likely be released 6 months or more later, the 6600XT was much worse than my expectations but it confirmed I made the right decision.

I studied computer science at university (no idea why lol) and I’ve been building gaming PCs for about 20 years. I’ve owned loads of Radeon cards. I’m completely done with them. The driver issues are widespread and real, check any forum and youl see. Just last year we had reports of the black screen bug everywhere.

I’ve given up hope that Radeon will compete with Nvidia. We always hope for that and we never really get it. I think the last time they truly were competitive was in 2013 when the 290X came out. After that it’s all been very dour from AMD.

Ive got more hope in Intel tbh.

Kind of funny to see someone complain about drivers and mention the 290X as good. I remember when a lot of people would recommend against the 200 series AMD GPUs due to driver issues.
Also check any forum and you'll see plenty of Nvidia driver issues too. AMD seems to have more issues than Nvidia, but based on polls I've seen the difference isn't that big.

 

[Athlonite]

Where I live Radeons are available pretty close to MSRP but GeForce is marked up and always sold out. I can understand why because you would have to be a complete and total lunatic to pick Radeon over GeForce today. The game I want an upgrade for the most is Minecraft so I can use all the RTX packs. So for me Radeon isn’t an option. Also I’m currently using an RX 480 and I’m done with AMDs appalling driver support. Too many glitches, flickering, black screens, poor optimisation etc.

I hope Intel can provide GPUs that can do modern things like ray tracing but without all the frustrating issues that come with Radeons awful drivers!

You have no idea then what newer AMD cards are like to use then if you're still on a crappy old RX480 they've come a long way since the RX400 series days and so have the drivers

 

[Sausagemeat]

You have no idea then what newer AMD cards are like to use then if you're still on a crappy old RX480 they've come a long way since the RX400 series days and so have the drivers

Well if AMD has gone through a revolution it’s too late for me. After 8 years of frustration and pain I’m done with them.

But somehow I feel that things haven’t improved much. Many reviewers have commented on awful stability in AC Valhalla and the black screen bug remains unfixed.

 

[Sausagemeat]

6600XT < 3060 Ti would be the correct one. The 6600XT is priced to compete against the 3060Ti MSRP wise, and as you said current street prices vary wildly from one region to another so comparing that doesn't make much sense.
Overall RDNA2 is too expensive, maybe due to the higher GDDR6 memory capacity, but it is priced to parity to Nvidia GPUs based on performance, but it lacks many features to make it worth buying for many people and the extra memory isn't important for many, but obviously current street prices make this irrelevant.
Personally, after I saw the pricing on the first AMD GPUs of this generation, I got a 3060Ti on release date without even considering a future AMD equivalent, I expected it would probably have similar fps/$ and likely be released 6 months or more later, the 6600XT was much worse than my expectations but it confirmed I made the right decision.

Kind of funny to see someone complain about drivers and mention the 290X as good. I remember when a lot of people would recommend against the 200 series AMD GPUs due to driver issues.
Also check any forum and you'll see plenty of Nvidia driver issues too. AMD seems to have more issues than Nvidia, but based on polls I've seen the difference isn't that big.

Oh I will admit the 290X was chock full of issues. But it was competitive against the much more expensive GTX780 at the time. We don’t get anywhere near that sort of value from AMD today.

Find me a series of AMD cards that aren’t full of forums complaining about drivers. Personally after 8 years on Radeon, I’m fed up and I want to see if the reports of better drivers on Nvidia are true. I also do want ray tracing funnily and would prefer to have DLSS than not

 

[Gars]

Im surprised
so, if alchemy turns electricity(lead) to gold = its a miner, right?
magic!

and were is the philosophy stone

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

It's just more meat for crypto miners. sigh.

 

[Kosmoz]

I know folks using AMD cards, last gen and current gen - they're not having driver issues.

I've never personally ran an AMD/ATI card in all my years. Nvidia always had a product that fell in my price range and I've stuck with what worked. I have had a slew of driver issues over the years with Nvidia, though. Ranging from flickering screens, video playback issues, monitors not waking up from sleep, drivers crashing in games, graphical anomalies and even fan controller issues.

If AMD card prices weren't jacked in the States, I would have happily purchased a 6700XT or 6800 at MSRP. But now that 6700XT and 6800 series cards are nearly $300+ or more over MSRP and if I get lucky (which I have) I could save a lot getting a 3060Ti (which I got for $470) or a 3070 for $700-800. It would be stupid to spend $800 on a 6700XT when the 3070 is priced the same or lower at times and it walks all over the 6700XT.

Yep, no issues so far with RX 6700 XT. I tried 3 different drivers and all worked well.

Yep again, I too had those same issues, from time to time, with my GTX 1060 and 1080 in about 5 years of use. Some drivers were worse than others.

And like you said above prices differ based on region, in EU is mostly nvidia that is more expensive than AMD, from +100 euros or more (+200/300 euros) / GPU tier. So for me there was no contest at all, AMD won my money easy.

 

[Athlonite]

Well if AMD has gone through a revolution it’s too late for me. After 8 years of frustration and pain I’m done with them.

But somehow I feel that things haven’t improved much. Many reviewers have commented on awful stability in AC Valhalla and the black screen bug remains unfixed.

Sheez I haven't had a black screen in years maybe it's not fixed for crappy old RX480's but it certainly doesn't exist for me on my RX6800
also can you provide sources for those AC Valhalla reviews that say it's a problem game on Radeon GPU's

 

[Sausagemeat]

Sheez I haven't had a black screen in years maybe it's not fixed for crappy old RX480's but it certainly doesn't exist for me on my RX6800
also can you provide sources for those AC Valhalla reviews that say it's a problem game on Radeon GPU's

Go on the AMD support forums, youl find many users complaining about AC Valhalla and black screens. I really cba to look for the reviews I watched about a year ago where the reviewers mention Radeon drivers are unplayable on Valhalla.

Why are you asking? With a username like “Athlonite” It’s probably quite safe to assume you’re just an unpaid AMD marketing drone who has been triggered by seeing AMD being criticised by someone they don’t know online.

Radeons drivers are a festering heap of garbage. As mentioned, I have years of experience with this. If you don’t get issues then lucky you.

 

[Gastec]

Names designed to attract the young noobs and whales. Names that look like they are coming straight from those ads for Chinese MMO browser games they keep bombarding us with on YouTube. Besides, "AI-powered super sampling solution" is just a fancy, noob-friendly name for spyware.

 

[Athlonite]

I really cba to look for the reviews I watched about a year ago where the reviewers mention Radeon drivers are unplayable on Valhalla.

A year ago jeez talk about dredge up the dead. And no I do not work for AMD but I am a self employed PC Tech and no one I know who's currently playing AC Valhalla is having the problems your talking about and most I know are using AMD GPU's ranging from RX580's upto RX6900's and none of them are complaining about an old bug that's most likely been patched out by the dev's and by newer Radeon Drivers

 

[Sausagemeat]

A year ago jeez talk about dredge up the dead. And no I do not work for AMD but I am a self employed PC Tech and no one I know who's currently playing AC Valhalla is having the problems your talking about and most I know are using AMD GPU's ranging from RX580's upto RX6900's and none of them are complaining about an old bug that's most likely been patched out by the dev's and by newer Radeon Drivers

“Dredge up the dead”. At what point exactly do you think people should not be allowed to mention issues they suffered from? How much time needs to pass? You sound exactly like Joe Biden when he complained that the press was still talking about Afghanistan.

AC Valhalla sucked anyway. I can list several other bugs that remain unfixed including the black screen bug. I had a black screen just yesterday and there are still thousands of people on forums complaining about it. I reckon AMD either doesn’t know how to fix it or it’s a critical flaw in the hardware that cant be patched with software.

The problem is it doesn’t matter if it gets fixed a year later, it’s too late by then. The users experience is already ruined. AMD shouldn’t get credit for eventually fixing the broken product, that should be expected.

 

[Bobbydpue]

The competition is there. The pricing is not, it seems to be all over the place depending on where you live.

Folks in some parts of the world say Nvidia cards sit on the shelves and are available, but they're priced $100/200/300+ over AMD's offerings.

Then in the States you have the opposite. AMD cards tend to sit on the shelves and are priced $100/200/300+ over Nvidia cards.

Then folks claim that Nvidia cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.
Then folks claim AMD cards are hard to come by because they're selling so much off directly to miners.

6600XT > 3060 (except at 4k, they are on par)
6700XT = 3060Ti
6800 > 3070
6800 = 3070Ti
6800XT = 3080
6800XT < 3080Ti
6900XT basically on par with the 3080Ti/3090

I don't see how your comment about how AMD can't give good competition is true.

NVIDIA is not selling card directly to miners that misinformation came from tech media who's reading comprehension isn't good enough to write tech news. That misinformation came from the tech media not understanding how to read an article from a financial analyst who speculated how many video cards were bought by miners.

 

[Bobbydpue]

Names designed to attract the young noobs and whales. Names that look like they are coming straight from those ads for Chinese MMO browser games they keep bombarding us with on YouTube. Besides, "AI-powered super sampling solution" is just a fancy, noob-friendly name for spyware.

Would some jumble of letters and numbers have been better like Intel's CPU naming schemes?