Intel’s ARC Alchemist graphics cards launch has seemingly been pushed to mid 2022

pcinvasion.com:

The Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards lineup has been on the minds of many for quite some time now. Since it was officially revealed back in August 2021, more than a few gamers been hopeful that these Alchemist cards can shake-up the troubled GPU market. But, it seems that PC gamers may need to wait for a little while longer. The Intel Arc Alchemist lineup has reportedly been internally delayed by a couple of months, which will result in it missing the original Q1 2022 launch window.

This information comes from Moore’s Law is Dead, who is in contact with multiple insiders that seem to know what’s going on at Intel. One of the sources stated that “Arc has effectively been pushed out to Q2 across the board.” The consensus drawn from across the sources is that Alchemist is now going to launch sometime between April and June.

At first glance, it may seem like bad news. Delays for highly-anticipated products tend to be rather annoying in most cases after all. But in actuality, the delay could be a good thing for Intel in terms of how the launch for the Arc Alchemist lineup gets perceived. The delay could give Intel the needed time to prepare more stock for the initial launch of the graphics cards, which would hopefully reduce the chance of the cards selling out within minutes of the listings going live. Stock doesn’t seem to be the main factor in the delay though, according to Moore’s Law is Dead.

Drivers for the Alchemist cards seem to be the main factor causing the delay. The general thought here is that the drivers were not good enough for the prior Q1 release date. Meaning that the general performance of the cards would have been hampered as a result and negatively affected reviews and public perception. It seems that