What you need to know
- Intel's Arc desktops GPUs may be delayed to between July and August 2022.
- Software and driver issues appear to be the cause of delays, rather than any concerns about hardware.
- Intel has previously stated that its Arc desktop graphics cards would start rolling out this summer.
Intel's Arc desktop GPUs appear to be delayed yet again, according to a report by Igor's Lab (via PC Gamer). The outlet, citing multiple sources, claimed that the graphics cards will ship sometime between July 1, 2022 and August 31, 2022. As with any leaks, it's important to take these dates with a grain of salt. It was only last week that an alleged leaked slide from Intel outlined a March-June 2022 release date for the Arc GPUs.
Intel's Arc desktop graphics cards have already seen delays in the past. The GPUs were once set to come out in 2021, then were delayed until Q2 2022. If the reports of a July or August launch are accurate, it would push the new GPUs even further away from their originally planned launch date.
Igor's Lab suspects that the delays are related to software and drivers, not hardware. That seems like a reasonable assumption, considering that at this stage in development, hardware issues are less likely than software or driver problems.
It's important for Intel to ensure that drivers are in place for its new GPUs at launch. Even if the hardware stacked up well against the best graphics cards on the market, poor driver support would lead to less than ideal performance.
Igor's Lab also added in an interesting tidbit about how Intel's Arc GPUs have affected NVIDIA. The outlet suggested that NVIDIA's cancelation of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 16GB was connected to the performance of Intel's A770.
