Skip to main content

Intel Arc Alchemist laptop makes brief premature appearance

An online retailer appears to have prematurely put a laptop equipped with Intel’s upcoming Arc Alchemist graphics card up for sale.

B&H Photo Video listed the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro on its website before realizing the error and pulling it. However, before it did so, images of the listing that were taken all but confirmed it will be one of the first products to ship with Intel’s discrete GPU, which will be introduced on March 30.

A product listing showing an Samsung Arc Alchemist-based laptop on a white background.
Image source: VideoCardz Image used with permission by copyright holder

As initially reported by VideoCardz, the Samsung 15.6-inch Galaxy Book 2 Pro will feature a 12th-generation Alder Lake processor, joined by an Arc Alchemist GPU. However, a specific model was not specified. That said, the board is expected to be based on either the A350M or A370M variations. As both of these units are built with the DG2-128EU GPU, it indicates the Arc GPU for the Samsung system will be an entry-level video card.

Recommended Videos

Other technical specifications for the laptop include 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory and 512GB of NVMe PCIe Gen4 storage. Its screen, meanwhile, is a 15.6-inch 1080p AMOLED display, while the machine’s weight comes in at an impressive 2.5 pounds. A price tag of $1,349 was also listed.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Although the exact Alder Lake CPU model was not mentioned, the website did confirm a clock speed of 2.1GHz. VideoCardz highlights how Intel’s Arc Alchemist GPUs will be interconnected with a 12th-gen Core Xe-LP GPU through Deep Link technology, which was outlined in an official description:

“Based on the Xe HPG architecture, the Intel Arc Graphics enhances performance for content creation and 3D games while including features such as ray tracing and artificial intelligence. With integrated Intel Deep Link technology, the dedicated GPU works in coordination with the CPU’s integrated graphics to boost the performance and power efficiency while performing demanding tasks such as video editing, livestreaming, and gaming.”

An early listing detailing a Samsung laptop equipped with an Intel Arc Alchemist GPU.
Image source: VideoCardz Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ve known about Intel’s reentry into the video card market for a while, but the chipmaker will officially announce its GPU lineup for laptops on March 30.

It’s expected that mobile systems outfitted with Arc Alchemist units will go on sale soon after, which would provide an explanation behind certain retailers preparing their product listing pages in anticipation for the launch.

Elsewhere, the highly anticipated Arc desktop graphics cards are expected to launch later in the year.

Intel hopes to make its mark in the ultracompetitive GPU market by committing to ship 4 million Arc GPUs units during 2022.

Zak Islam
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Zak Islam was a freelance writer at Digital Trends covering the latest news in the technology world, particularly the…
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
Intel claims up to 268% gaming boost with latest Arc graphics drivers
Two intel Arc graphics cards on a pink background.

Intel has released a new graphics driver update for its Arc lineup of GPUs. It is the company's first major update this year, primarily supporting new game titles like Enshrouded, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8, and Palworld. As always, the new Game On drivers (31.0.101.5186) also ensure a substantial performance boost to many existing DirectX11 and DirectX12 games.

As per Intel, gamers can expect a massive increase of up to 268% average fps (frame per second) uplift in Just Cause 4 at 1080p with very high settings and about 160% average fps uplift in Just Cause 3 with similar settings. Popular titles like Tekken 8 (DX12) also witness up to 15% average fps uplift at 4K with ultra settings and up to 8% average fps uplift in The Last of Us Part 1 at 1080p with ultra settings.

Read more