Intel’s Arc graphics card may be in short supply – no cryptocurrency

During Architecture Day 2021, Intel finally delivered a large part of the news about the company’s first game-oriented graphics card in just over 20 years. The new Arc brand and the “Alchemist” product family Among the technical details of the new Arc brand and the “Alchemist” product family, however, there was a lack of information on availability and whether consumers have any chance of actually buying the new products.

Uncertain and lack of availability characterize most hardware launches at present. This applies in particular to graphics cards, where in some cases the availability is almost non-existent. A third player in the market, on the other hand, does not automatically mean that the situation will improve. In an interview with Gadgets 360, Intel’s graphics manager Raja Koduri says that Intel can not guarantee anything at the moment.

I’ll always be very cautious, when the demand is so high and when the market is so hard. I can always use more supply. So I’m not going to say I have enough supply in this high-demand market. I think every one of my competitors will say the same thing right now.

Koduri further explains that the market is too difficult and demand so high that he does not dare to say that Intel can guarantee supply. He believes that at the moment it is not possible to have too much in stock. Koduri also adds that he believes that all of Intel’s competitors would repeat the same thing right now. It is worth noting that Intel is not responsible for the production itself. They have hired TSMC for this, which also manufactures for AMD.

During the first quarter of the year, approximately a quarter of all graphics cards were sold miners, something that is not particularly appreciated by gamblers gamers. To make graphics cards less attractive to break cryptocurrencies with Nvidia recently implemented a barrier for new graphics cards that limits the performance of mining. This can be bypassed, but not completely without hassle. AMD, on the other hand, has not chosen that path, something Intel is also hooked on.

All the optimisations, the features, everything we’re doing, is really to make sure we can solve problems and deliver value to gamers and creators. As far as like software lockouts and things of that nature, we’re not designing this product or building any features at this point that specifically target miners. As far as actions we’re taking to avoid or lock them out, it’s a product that will be in the market and people will be able to buy it. It’s not a priority for us.

During the interview, it also appears that Intel does not implement any barriers that prevent mining. Radja Koduri claims that Intel designs the product with games and creation in focus. The company will not optimize the product to break cryptocurrencies. However, it does not prioritize actively trying to lock out miners, neither at the hardware nor software level.

Previous data suggests that the first graphics card performs between the Geforce RTX 3070 Ti and the Radeon RX 6700 XT. The price tag also seems to be aiming for the same level, as the target price is said to land around 500 USD. However, this is not synonymous with what the product then costs at retailers. The first graphics cards from the “Alchemist” product family will be launched in the first quarter of 2022.

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