Intel Arc Alchemist pricier than expected?

Xe-HPG Scavenger Hunt will soon enter a second phase.

Intel Arc Alchemist reference design, Source: Moore’s Law is Dead

The terms and conditions for the upcoming second phase of the Xe-HPG Scavenger Hunt might have indirectly revealed the estimated pricing of the upcoming Alchemist GPUs from Intel. The prize includes two graphics card models representing Premium and Performance tiers in first-generation Arc GPU with an estimated value of 900 USD and 700U SD, however, this also includes 6 or 3 months of Xbox Game Pass for PC and Intel Arc merchandise.

Tom’s Hardware calculated the value of the bundle and concluded that the GPUs might be worth 825 USD and 650 USD respectively for Premium and Performance models. A monthly subscription to Game Pass PC costs around 10 USD, which gives 60 USD for 6 months. In addition, Intel will be bundling some merchandise with the GPUs, such as the Arc T-Shirt which was sent out to the press just recently. It has a value of 54 USD . This estimation is far from accurate and probably does not reflect final pricing nearly 3 months ahead of launch.

Intel Xe-HPG Scavenger Hunt terms and condition, Source: Intel

Intel is set to launch its Arc Alchemist discrete desktop GPUs in the second quarter of 2022, while the mobile SKUs are to launch around CES 2022 with next-gen laptop designs.

Arc Alchemist graphics cards are to offer up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory and 4096 FP32 cores, a configuration that is supposedly able to compete with NVIDIA GA104 and AMD Navi 22 GPUs in respective performance segments.

The second stage of Scavenger Hung begins on October 27th, which means we are to hear more about it at the Intel Innovation event which happens to be on the same day.

Source: Intel via Tom’s Hardware