Intel Arc Alchemist Flagship GPU Spotted on Geekbench OpenCL

Although there is still no official news surrounding Intel’s upcoming Arc Alchemist dedicated desktop graphics cards (other than the fact that they are currently scheduled to release in Q2), one of the biggest questions from the gaming community is exactly where they’re going to sit on the comparative performance landscape. – Well, following a report via Videocardz, new Geekbench OpenCL results have been spotted in the database, presumably taken from the flagship Arc Alchemist graphics card, that might give us an idea.

Intel Arc Alchemist Flagship Graphics Card Performance

Taking a look at the specifications, one of the most interesting aspects revealed in the results is that this still unnamed GPU features a pretty big 2,400MHz boost clock speed. Now, while initially sounding quite impressive, this should be tempered with the fact that a big clock speed does not always equal a fast level of gaming performance. You only need to look at the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT for a prime example of that!

Just how good is it though? Well, based on the results, it’s not overly positive stuff. Now, admittedly, OpenCL isn’t a gaming benchmark, and as such, the scores provided should be taken with a grain of salt. In terms of comparative performance, however, the result has this GPU more on par with something like the Nvidia 2070. A quite substantial point given that, to date, all indications have suggested that this Arc Alchemist flagship was more targeting the 3070.

Things Can Get Better!

The results shown here were undoubtedly taken from an Intel engineering sample. As such, the drivers are still very likely in development as well as the GPUs BIOS configuration etc. – Put simply, although not amazingly positive results, this is almost certainly not indicative of what the final product will perform like. – That is, at least, the hope.

As we have often said in the past though, the importance of Arc Alchemist is not so much how well it competes in gaming when compared to AMD and Nvidia, but more so the fact that it will mark the debut of a long-overdue third player in the graphics card market. – We’ve already seen indications that it will only be upon the release of their 3rd-gen ‘Arc Celestial’ series that they will truly start competing at the top of the tree.

For the moment though, it’s far better to keep your expectations low and be willing to be surprised rather than to expect huge things and be disappointed. Intel Arc Alchemist is coming, and all going well, it will provide some solid options in a market crying out for anything new (and available).

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!