Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Intel adds $400 worth of goodies to Arc Alchemist, but there’s a catch

By

A new leak suggests that Intel may be readying some quite exciting gaming and app bundles to pair with its upcoming Arc Alchemist graphics cards.

The bundles include some of the latest games and a selection of useful apps, and when added up, the software might be worth around $400. There’s a catch, though — it’s not just an Arc Alchemist GPU that you’d have to buy. You will also need an Intel processor.

Recommended Videos

Intel Software Advantage Program
Intel Arc 5/7 Systems Bundlehttps://t.co/jG5vIRMKAv pic.twitter.com/I0BiYXtwL5

— 188号 (@momomo_us) September 6, 2022

Related

Well-known leaker momomo_us on Twitter managed to dig up an official Intel website that talks about these bundles in great detail. Bundling games with new graphics cards used to be more popular before the GPU shortage, but now, Intel seems to be preparing to bring that trend back — and the bundles certainly look pretty exciting.

Each bundle comes with a mix of four games and a choice of three apps (out of a total of five). Only certain Arc GPUs qualify, but to be fair, most of the lineup is covered here. The mentioned graphics cards include the Arc A770 and the Arc A770M, Arc A750, Arc A730M, Arc A580, and Arc A550M. This means that both laptop and desktop users may be able to benefit.

There’s a catch, though. Buying a GPU won’t be enough. You’ll also need to buy one of the higher-end Intel Alder Lake processors in order to qualify for what Intel has dubbed the “Intel Software Advantage Program.” Some of the CPUs in question include the Intel Core i5-12600K, Core i7-12700K, Core i9-12900K, and Core i9-12900KS. Mobile versions of the Alder Lake chips have also been listed, so laptop users won’t need to buy anything other than the laptop itself if the specifications will be good enough to qualify.

LEDs forming the Intel ARC logo.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

For those who buy an Arc GPU and Intel CPU bundle, the rewards are quite generous. Intel notes the full list, including the prices of the software and games, and adds up the total average retail value of the prizes to be at around $370 or higher. The games include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II ($70), Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed ($40), Gotham Knights ($60), and Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodhunt ($20). When it comes to software, you can pick three out of five between the following: PowerDirector 365 ($70), D5 Render (yearly subscription, $114), MAGIX Video Pro X14 (yearly subscription, $60), Topaz Gigapixel AI ($100), and XSplit Premium Suite (yearly subscription, $60).

The qualifying period for Intel’s alleged program started on August 25 and will run through December 31. Keep in mind that none of this is official yet — you should wait for Intel to break the news before you go on a shopping spree. The website is already up, but Intel hasn’t advertised the program at all, so this was most likely leaked well ahead of time.

The most interesting GPUs on the list of qualifying hardware are still not available on the market. When will the Arc A770 and the Arc A750 be available for sale? That remains to be seen, but at least we can pretty much guess that it will happen before the end of the year, with Intel recently hinting that the GPUs are coming “very soon.”

Topics
Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…

Editors’ Recommendations

Intel may fire the first shots in the next-gen GPU war
Intel Arc A770 GPU installed in a test bench.

The GPU market is about to start heating up in just a few short months, and that's not just due to AMD and Nvidia. According to a new report, Intel plans to release its highly anticipated, next-gen Arc Battlemage graphics cards sooner than many have expected, and the GPUs might drop at just the perfect time to steal some sales away from AMD and Nvidia.

The tantalizing news comes from a report by ComputerBase. The publication claims that during Embedded World 2024, an event that took place in Germany, Intel's partners implied that Arc Battlemage GPUs might launch before this year's Black Friday. Realistically, this implies that Intel would have to hit the market in early November at the latest, giving its partners and retailers enough time to make the products readily available during the Black Friday shopping craze.

Read more
How Intel could win the GPU war this year
Intel Arc A580 graphics card on a pink background.

Intel faced an uphill climb with Arc Alchemist, and it looks like it might have another fight ahead with its next-gen Battlemage GPUs. The competition is always fierce, and AMD and Nvidia have big plans for the year ahead.

Despite the clouds that loom on the horizon, Intel might still surprise us with Battlemage -- in a good way. Here's where Intel Arc Battlemage is currently at, and why it might have a shot at being one of the best GPUs of the year.
Déjà vu
Prior to the release of Intel Arc Alchemist, one of the main complaints was that the general public was kept in the dark a lot of the time. The release date was pushed back more than once, and the information about the GPUs was fairly scarce compared to the constant hype we've all grown used to with Nvidia and AMD leaks.

Read more
Intel may be throwing away an important opportunity
The backs of the Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards.

However small Intel's presence might be when it comes to discrete graphics cards, it's still chipping away at Arc Battlemage -- but every time we hear of it, the news is strictly bad. This time, a new leak tells us that Intel may not even attempt to release Arc Battlemage for laptops, and even if it does, its partners may still not want to produce the acrds.

The grim update comes from Moore's Law Is Dead, who talked about Arc Battlemage in his latest video. According to the YouTuber's anonymous sources, Intel's next-gen discrete GPUs aren't coming to laptops. References to any mobile GPUs have reportedly been erased from an internal Intel document, indicating that the cards may have been scrapped, as opposed to never having been planned.

Read more