Intel today introduced the Arc Pro family of GPUs, designed primarily for powerful desktop workstations and notebooks. The Intel Arc Pro A40 and A50 will both be used in workstations, while the A30M will be used in professional-focused laptops. All three GPUs are capable of hardware-based ray tracing and AV1 hardware acceleration and are designed with artificial intelligence tasks and creator applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro in mind.
The Intel Arc Pro A40 will ship as a small single-socket (half-height blade card) with 3.5 teraflops of graphics processing power, eight ray-tracing cores, and 6GB of GDDR6 memory, Intel is targeting this GPU for ultra-thin workstations or small form factor PCs.
The larger A50 features a dual-socket design with 4.8 teraflops of graphics power, 8 ray-traced cores and 6GB of GDDR6 memory. Due to its dual-socket design, it has a form factor more suited to traditional workstations. Both workstation GPUs will include four Mini DisplayPorts for multi-monitor configurations, supporting two 8K 60Hz displays, one 5K 240Hz display, two 5K 120Hz displays, or four 4K 60Hz displays.
While there is technically no problem playing games on these GPUs, they are not designed for gaming. Instead, Intel is optimizing them for professional tasks and creator applications such as Blender, HandBrake, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio, and more. Intel’s goal is to have these GPUs certified for applications in engineering and architecture, construction and manufacturing. These GPUs will also support full AV1 hardware acceleration, which Intel is calling an industry first.
The Mobile A30M GPU chip for mobile devices will include 3.5 teraflops of graphics performance, eight ray-tracing cores, and 4GB of GDDR6 memory, and it is designed to use 35 to 50 watts of peak power, while the display output will depend on the OEM’s laptop configuration.
Intel has set lower expectations for its recently launched consumer gaming GPUs, and the company hasn’t provided any metrics on workstation performance. Intel said its Arc Pro line of GPUs will be available from mobile and desktop partners later this year.
