Wikipedia

Intel Arc

Intel Arc is a brand of graphics processing units designed by Intel. These are discrete GPUs mostly marketed for the high-margin gaming PC market. The brand also covers Intel's consumer graphics software and services.

Intel Arc
Release dateMarch 30, 2022 (2022-03-30)[1]
Manufactured byTSMC
Designed byIntel
Marketed byIntel
Codenames
  • Alchemist
  • Battlemage
  • Celestial
  • Druid
ArchitectureIntel Xe
CoresUp to 32 Xe cores
TransistorsUp to 21.7 billion
Fabrication processTSMC N5
TSMC N6
Cards
Entry-levelArc 3
Mid-rangeArc 5
High-endArc 7
API support
DirectX
OpenCLOpenCL 3.0[a]
OpenGLOpenGL 4.6
VulkanVulkan 1.3
History
Predecessor

Arc competes with Nvidia's GeForce and AMD's Radeon lines.[2] The Arc-A series for laptops was launched on March 30, 2022, with the A750 and A770 both released in Q3 2022.[3][4][5] Intel missed their initial Q2 2022 release target, with most discrete Arc GPUs not launching until October 2022.[6]

In addition a new series of arc cards (the b series) are scheduled to release in December 2024 through January 2025, today (December 17th 2024) only the b580 is released with a couple more cards on the horizon.

Intel officially launched the Arc Pro workstation GPUs on August 8, 2022.[7][8]

Intel officially launched the 2nd generation Battlemage GPUs on December 3rd, 2024.[9][10]

Etymology

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According to Intel, the brand is named after the concept of story arcs found in video games.[11] Each generation of Arc is named after character classes sorted by each letter of the Latin alphabet in ascending order. They begin with A, then B, then C, and so on. The first generation is named Alchemist, while Battlemage, Celestial and Druid are the respective names for the second, third and fourth Arc generations.[12]

Graphics processor generations

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Alchemist

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An Intel Arc A770 16 GB, the highest-end desktop GPU from Intel's first generation Alchemist GPUs, with a Rubik's Cube for scale

Developed under the previous codename "DG2", the first generation of Intel Arc GPUs (codenamed "Alchemist") released on March 30, 2022.[1][13] It comes in both add-on desktop card and laptop form factors. TSMC manufactures the die, using their N6 process.[14]

Alchemist uses the Intel Xe GPU architecture, or more specifically, the Xe-HPG variant. Alchemist supports hardware-based ray tracing, XeSS or supersampling based on neural networks (similar to Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR), and DirectX 12 Ultimate.[1][15] Also supported are DisplayPort 2.0 and overclocking. AV1 fixed-function hardware encoder is included in Alchemist GPUs as part of the Intel Quick Sync Video core.[16]

Intel confirmed ASTC support has been removed from hardware starting with Alchemist and future Arc GPU microarchitectures will also not support it.[17]

Arc Alchemist does not support SR-IOV[18] or Direct3D 9 natively, instead falling back on the D3D9On12 wrapper which translates Direct3D 9 calls to their Direct3D 12 equivalents.[19][20]

Arc support OpenCL 3.0[note 1] for example, this GPU can work in the grid World Community Grid.[21]

Display connections: DisplayPort 2.0 (40 Gbit/s bandwidth) and HDMI 2.1

Desktop

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Branding and Model[22] Launch MSRP
(USD) 		Code name Process Transistors (billion) Die size
(mm2) 		Core config [b] L2 cache Clock rate
(MHz)[c] 		Fillrate Memory Processing power (TFLOPS) TDP Bus
interface
Pixel
(GP/s) 		Texture
(GT/s) 		Type Size (GB) Bandwidth
(GB/s) 		Bus width Clock
(MT/s) 		Half
precision
(base) 		Single
precision
(base) 		Double
precision
(base)
Arc 3 A310 Sep 28, 2022 $110 ACM-G11
(DG2-128) 		TSMC
N6 		7.2 157 6 Xe cores
768:32:16:6
(192:96:2) 		4 MB 2000
2000 		32 64 GDDR6 4 GB 124 64-bit 15500 6.144 3.072 0.768 75 W PCIe 4.0 x8
A380 Jun 14, 2022 $139 8 Xe cores
1024:64:32:8
(256:128:2) 		2000
2050 		64
65.6 		128
131.2 		6 GB 186 96-bit 8.192
8.3968 		4.096
4.1984 		1.024
1.0496
Arc 5 A580 Oct 10, 2023 $179 ACM-G10
(DG2-512) 		21.7 406 24 Xe cores
3072:192:96:24
(768:384:6) 		8 MB 1700
1700 		163.2 326.4 8 GB 512 256-bit 16000 20.890 10.445 2.611 175 W PCIe 4.0 x16
Arc 7 A750 Oct 14, 2022 $289 28 Xe cores
3584:224:112:28
(896:448:7) 		16 MB 2050
2400 		229.6
268.8 		393.6
460.8 		29.3888
34.4064 		14.6944
17.2032 		3.6736
4.3008 		225 W
A770 8GB $329 32 Xe cores
4096:256:128:32
(1024:512:8) 		2100
2400 		268.8
307.2 		537.6
614.4 		34.4064
39.3216 		17.2032
19.6608 		4.3008
4.9152
A770 16GB $349 16 GB 560 17500
  1. ^ In OpenCL 3.0, OpenCL 1.2 functionality has become a mandatory baseline, while all OpenCL 2.x and OpenCL 3.0 features were made optional.
  2. ^ Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
       (tensor cores (XMX): execution units: render slices)
  3. ^ Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.

Mobile

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Branding and Model[23] Launch Code name Process Transistors (billion) Die size
(mm2) 		Core config[a][b] L2
cache 		Core clock
(MHz)[c] 		Fillrate[d] Memory Processing power (TFLOPS) TDP Bus
interface
Pixel
(GP/s) 		Texture
(GT/s) 		Type Size Bandwidth
(GB/s) 		Bus width Clock
(MT/s) 		Half
precision 		Single
precision 		Double
precision
Arc 3 A350M Mar 30, 2022 ACM-G11
(DG2-128) 		TSMC
N6 		7.2 157 6 Xe cores
768:48:24:6
(96:96:2) 		4 MB 1150
2200 		27.6
52.8 		55.2
105.6 		GDDR6 4 GB 112 64-bit 14000 3.5328
6.7584 		1.7664
3.3792 		0.4416
0.8448 		25–35 W PCIe 4.0 ×8
A370M 8 Xe cores
1024:64:32:8
(128:128:2) 		1550
2050 		49.6
65.6 		99.2
131.2 		6.3488
8.3968 		3.1744
4.1984 		0.7936
1.0496 		35–50 W
Arc 5 A530M Q3 2023 ACM-G12
(DG2-256) 		12 Xe cores
1536:96:48:12
(192:192:3) 		8 MB 1300 4 GB
8 GB 		224 128-bit 65–95 W
A550M Q2 2022 ACM-G10
(DG2-512) 		21.7 406 16 Xe cores
2048:128:64:16
(256:256:4) 		900
1700 		57.6
108.8 		115.2
217.6 		8 GB 7.3728
13.9264 		3.6864
6.9632 		0.9216
1.7408 		60–80 W
A570M Q3 2023 ACM-G12
(DG2-256) 		1300 75–95 W
Arc 7 A730M Q2 2022 ACM-G10
(DG2-512) 		21.7 406 24 Xe cores
3072:192:96:24
(384:384:6) 		12 MB 1100
2050 		105.6
196.8 		211.2
393.6 		12 GB 336 192-bit 13.5168
25.1904 		6.7584
12.5952 		1.6896
3.1488 		80–120 W PCIe 4.0 ×16
A770M 32 Xe cores
4096:256:128:32
(512:512:8) 		16 MB 1650
2050 		211.2
262.4 		422.4
524.8 		16 GB 512 256-bit 16000 27.0336
33.5872 		13.5168
16.7936 		3.3792
4.1984 		120–150 W
  1. ^ Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
       (tensor cores (XMX): execution units: render slices)
  2. ^ Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
  3. ^ Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
  4. ^ Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.

Workstation

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Branding and Model[24] Launch Code name Process Transistors (billion) Die size
(mm2) 		Core config[a] L2
cache 		Core clock
(MHz)[b] 		Fillrate[c][d] Memory Processing power (TFLOPS) TDP Bus
interface
Pixel
(GP/s) 		Texture
(GT/s) 		Type Size Bandwidth
(GB/s) 		Bus width Clock
(MT/s) 		Half
precision 		Single
precision 		Double
precision
Arc Pro A30M
(Mobile) 		Aug 8, 2022 ACM-G11
(DG2-128) 		TSMC
N6 		7.2 157 8 Xe cores
1024:64:32:8
(128:128:2) 		4 MB 1550 GDDR6 4 GB 112 64-bit 14000
4.20[24] 		50 W PCIe 4.0 x8
A40 6 GB 192 96-bit 16000
5.02[24]
A50 2050 75 W
A60M
(Mobile) 		June 6, 2023 ACM-G12
(DG2-256) 		16 Xe cores
2048:128:64:16
(256:256:4) 		1300 8 GB 256 128-bit
9.42[24] 		95 W PCIe 4.0 x16
A60 12 GB 384 192-bit
10.04[24] 		130 W
  1. ^ Shading cores (ALU): texture mapping units (TMU): render output units (ROP): ray tracing units
       (tensor cores (XMX): execution Units: render slices)
  2. ^ Boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italic.
  3. ^ Pixel fillrate is calculated as the lowest of three numbers: number of ROPs multiplied by the base core clock speed, number of rasterizers multiplied by the number of fragments they can generate per rasterizer multiplied by the base core clock speed, and the number of streaming multiprocessors multiplied by the number of fragments per clock that they can output multiplied by the base clock rate.
  4. ^ Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.

Battlemage

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Battlemage (Xe2) is the second generation Xe architecture that debuted with its low power variant in Lunar Lake mobile processors that released in September 2024.[25] On December 3, 2024, Intel announced two Arc B-Series desktop graphics cards based on the Xe2-HPG graphics architecture.[26]

SKU Released Launch
MSRP
(USD) 		GPU
Die
Transistors (billion)
 Die
size 		Core Cache Memory Fillrate[a][b] Processing power (TFLOPS) Interface TDP
Config[c] Clock
(MHz)[d] 		L1 L2 Type Size Clock
(Gb/s) 		Band-
width
(GB/s) 		Bus
width 		Pixel
(Gpx/s) 		Texture
(Gtex/s) 		FP16 FP32 FP64

Arc
5 		B570 Jan 16, 2025 $219 BMG-G21 19.6 272 mm2 18 Xe Cores (144)
2304:144:72:18:144 		1700
2600 		4.5 MB 10 MB GDDR6 10 GB 19.0 380 160-bit 122.4
208.0 		244.8
374.4 		PCIe 4.0
x8 		150 W
B580 Dec 13, 2024 $249 20 Xe Cores (160)
2560:160:80:20:160 		1700
2800 		5 MB 12 MB 12 GB 456 192-bit 136.0
224.0 		272.0
448.0 		190 W
  1. ^ Pixel fillrate is calculated as the number of render output units (ROPs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
  2. ^ Texture fillrate is calculated as the number of texture mapping units (TMUs) multiplied by the base (or boost) core clock speed.
  3. ^ Xe2-HPG Cores (Xe Vector Engines)
    Unified Shaders : Texture Mapping Units : Render Output Units : Ray Tracing Cores : XMX Cores
  4. ^ Core boost values (if available) are stated below the base value in italics.

Future generations

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Intel also revealed future generations of Intel Arc GPUs under development: Celestial (Xe3), and Druid (Xe4).[27][5]

Intel revealed that Meteor Lake and later generations of CPU SoCs uses an Intel Arc Tile GPU.[28][29]

Intel XeSS

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Intel XeSS is a real-time deep learning image upsampling technology developed primarily for use in video games as a competitor to Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR technologies. Additionally, XeSS is not restricted to Arc graphics cards. It utilizes XMX instructions exclusive to Arc graphics cards, but will fall back to utilizing DP4a instructions on competing GPUs that have support for DP4a instructions. XeSS is trained with 64 samples per pixel as opposed to Nvidia DLSS's 16 samples per pixel (16K reference images).[30][31]

Standard XeSS quality presets[32]
Quality preset[a] Scale factor[b] Render scale[c]
Ultra Quality 1.30× 77.0%
Quality 1.50× 66.7%
Balanced 1.70× 58.8%
Performance 2.00× 50.0%
Ultra Performance 3.00× 33.3%
  1. ^ The algorithm does not necessarily need to be implemented using these presets; it is possible for the implementer to define custom input and output resolutions.
  2. ^ The linear scale factor used for upsampling the input resolution to the output resolution. For example, a scene rendered at 540p with a 2.00× scale factor would have an output resolution of 1080p.
  3. ^ The linear render scale, compared to the output resolution, that the technology uses to render scenes internally before upsampling. For example, a 1080p scene with a 50% render scale would have an internal resolution of 540p.

Issues

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Drivers

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Performance on Intel Arc GPUs has suffered from poor driver support, particularly at launch. An investigation by Gamers Nexus discovered 43 known driver issues with Arc GPUs, prompting a response and acknowledgement of the issues from Intel.[33][34][35] Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger also blamed driver problems as a reason for Arc's delayed launch.[36] A beta driver from October 2022 accidentally reduced the memory clock by 9% on the Arc A770 from 2187 MHz to 2000 MHz, resulting in a 17% reduction in memory bandwidth.[37] This particular issue was later fixed.[38] Intel provides an open source driver for Linux.[39]

DirectX 9 compatibility

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As of the Alchemist generation, Arc only includes direct hardware support for the DirectX 11 & 12 and Vulkan graphics APIs, with the older DirectX 9 & 10 and OpenGL APIs being supported via a real-time compatibility layer built into Intel's graphics driver.[40] As a result, Alchemist GPUs perform noticeably worse than competing Nvidia and AMD GPUs in software that can only use these older APIs, including multiple DirectX 9-based esports games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.[41] There is also a performance gap between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12.

A December 2022 driver update improved Arc compatibility and performance with DirectX 9-based games.[42] According to Intel, the driver update made Arc GPUs up to 1.8x faster in DirectX 9 games.[43] A February 2023 driver update further improved Arc's performance on DirectX 9-based games.[44]

Legacy BIOS compatibility

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Intel Arc requires a UEFI BIOS with resizable BAR support for optimal performance.[45]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ In OpenCL 3.0, OpenCL 1.2 functionality has become a mandatory baseline, while all OpenCL 2.x and OpenCL 3.0 features were made optional.

References

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  1. ^ a b c hachman, Mark (March 14, 2022). "Intel will launch its Arc GPUs on March 30". PCWorld. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Warren, Tom (August 16, 2021). "Intel enters the PC gaming GPU battle with Arc". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  3. ^ "Intel® Arc™ A750 Graphics - Product Specifications". Intel. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  4. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (March 30, 2022). "Intel's first Arc GPUs are now available for laptops". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Intel Introduces New High-Performance Graphics Brand: Intel Arc". Intel. Archived from the original on March 16, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  6. ^ Szewczyk, Chris (May 9, 2022). "Intel Arc desktop cards face more delays". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  7. ^ "Intel Unveils Arc Pro GPU Products". Intel. August 8, 2022. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  8. ^ "Intel® Arc™ Pro A-Series Graphics for Workstations". Intel. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  9. ^ "Intel Launches Arc B-Series Graphics Cards". Intel. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  10. ^ John Loeffler (December 3, 2024). "Intel announces its new Battlemage graphics cards, and they might just be the 1440p budget champions we've been waiting for". TechRadar. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  11. ^ Ung, Gordon (August 19, 2021). "Intel's Arc gaming GPU: Price, specs and availability". PCWorld. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  12. ^ "Intel Introduces New High-Performance Graphics Brand: Intel Arc". Intel Newsroom. August 16, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  13. ^ Rutherford, Sam (August 16, 2021). "Intel Names New Brand of GPUs That Will Hit Shelves Next Year". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  14. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (August 20, 2021). "Intel provides more details on its Arc GPUs, which will be made by TSMC". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on August 29, 2021. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  15. ^ "Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics Gaming API Guide". Intel. Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  16. ^ Szewczyk, Chris (April 4, 2022). "Intel Arc GPUs will support AV1 encode and decode". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  17. ^ "intel: ASTC support was removed on Gfx12.5 (!13206) · Merge requests · Mesa / mesa · GitLab". GitLab. October 5, 2021. Archived from the original on October 7, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  18. ^ "Graphics Virtualization Technologies Support for Each Intel Graphics Family". Intel. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  19. ^ "Which Intel® Graphics Products Support DirectX 9* (DX9)?". Intel. Archived from the original on August 27, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  20. ^ Killian, Zak (August 15, 2022). "Intel Xe And Arc Graphics Lack DX9 Support Forcing DX12 Emulation". HotHardware. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  21. ^ "Help". World Community Grid. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  22. ^ "Intel Arc Graphics". Intel. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  23. ^ "Intel Arc Graphics". Intel.
  24. ^ a b c d e "Intel® Arc™ Pro A-Series Graphics". Intel.
  25. ^ Lam, Chester (October 8, 2024). "Lunar Lake's iGPU: Debut of Intel's Xe2 Architecture". Chips and Cheese. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  26. ^ Hollister, Sean (December 3, 2024). "Intel announces $249 Arc B580 and $219 Arc B570 'Battlemage' graphics cards". The Verge. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  27. ^ Smith, Ryan (August 16, 2021). "Intel Video Cards Get a Brand Name: Arc, Starting with 'Alchemist' in Q1 2022". AnandTech. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  28. ^ Smith, Ryan (February 17, 2022). "Intel Meteor Lake Client Processors to use Arc Graphics Chiplets". AnandTech. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  29. ^ Sripada, Radhakrishna (July 7, 2022). "[Intel-gfx] [PATCH 0/2] i915: Introduce Meteorlake". Free Desktop. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  30. ^ Solca, Bogdan (August 8, 2022). "More details on Intel's AI-based Xe SuperSampling tech launching with the ARC GPUs revealed by principal engineer". NotebookCheck. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  31. ^ "Intel® Iris® Xe MAX Graphics Open Source Programmer's Reference Manual For the 2020 Discrete GPU formerly named "DG1" Volume 11: Media Engines February 2021, Revision 1.0" (PDF). Intel. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  32. ^ Mujtaba, Hassan (March 24, 2022). "Intel Showcases Arc Alchemist GPU Performance With XeSS & Raytracing Enabled, Calls XeSS Better Than Temporal Upscaling". Wccftech. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  33. ^ Gamers Nexus (August 1, 2022). "Worst We've Tested: Broken Intel Arc GPU Drivers". YouTube. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  34. ^ McLoughlin, Aleksha (October 8, 2022). "Intel Arc driver issues – Are they fixed?". PC Guide. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  35. ^ Pearce, Lisa (August 19, 2022). "Engineering Arc - 8/19/2022". Intel. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  36. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (August 9, 2022). "Rumors, delays, and early testing suggest Intel's Arc GPUs are on shaky ground". Ars Technica. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  37. ^ "Some Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition GPUs may show up with lower memory clock". VideoCardz. October 24, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  38. ^ Klotz, Aaron (October 28, 2022). "Intel Arc A770 GPU Memory Clock Bug Fixed With Driver Update". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  39. ^ Larabel, Michael (August 25, 2022). "Intel Arc Graphics Running On Fully Open-Source Linux Driver". Phoronix. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  40. ^ Roach, Jacob (August 22, 2022). "Bad news: Intel's Arc GPU issues run much deeper than performance". Digital Trends. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  41. ^ Kan, Michael (December 7, 2022). "With New Driver, Intel Arc GPUs Run Older DirectX 9 Games Up to 79% Faster". PCMag. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  42. ^ Shrout, Ryan (December 6, 2022). "Upward Trajectory: Improvements to DirectX 9 Games on Intel® Arc™ Graphics". Intel. Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  43. ^ "Intel Arc GPUs get performance boost for DirectX 9 games, CS:GO now up to 1.8x faster". VideoCardz. December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  44. ^ "Intel Arc Graphics Updates, New Bundle, and Pricing". Intel. Archived from the original on October 1, 2023. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  45. ^ "Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics – Desktop Quick Start..." Intel. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
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