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We already know the requirements for Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards, they won’t work on any PC

A user guide published by the chip giant has let us see the requirements of Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards, and the truth is that we have been surprised since these requirements are quite high, so much so that, if they end up being truly exclusive , they will only work on three generations of processors.

According to this information, which as I have told you is official, the new Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards will only work on computers based on the following specifications:

  • Core Gen10 (Comet Lake-S) processors with 400 series motherboards and Resizable BAR enabled.
  • Core Gen11 (Rocket Lake-S) processors with 500 series motherboards and Resizable BAR enabled.
  • Core Gen12 (Alder Lake-S) processors with 600 series motherboards and Resizable BAR enabled.

Needless to say, future Raptor Lake-S processors and 700-series chipset motherboards will also enter the list of supported configurationsalthough they have not been included because they have not yet been officially presented.

The requirement to activate the Resizable BAR technology has an explanation, and that is that according to Intel it is something essential for optimal performance in all applications. This raises some questions, since it is not entirely clear if it will be possible to use Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards without having said technology activated, and if so, what performance can we expect.

However, the truth is that this intrigues me quite a bit, and I am looking forward to seeing if such technology is really capable of making such a difference with the Intel Arc Alchemist, especially since, so far, the performance improvement that we have seen in other graphics solutions, such as NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30, has been very small.

Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card requirements We already know the requirements for Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards, they won't work on any PC 31

Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card requirements

Will Intel Arc Alchemist work with AMD CPUs?

Yes, although Intel has only made an express reference to the Core Gen10, Core Gen11 and Core Gen11 right at the end, it has also indicated that “other platforms and motherboards with Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory activated could also support Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards ». As many of our readers will know, this means that SAM-compliant CPUs and motherboards should be fully compatible with new Intel graphics cards.

To all the requirements that we have already seen we must add one more, and that is that the motherboard must have one PCIe Gen3 slot running in x16 mode. In this case it is also unclear if this means that it will not be possible to run an Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card in a PCIe Gen3 x8 slot or lower, or if it will work but offer lower performance.

If we use a processor Core Gen10 it may be that our motherboard does not support Resizable BAR, so we will have to be very careful if we had thought of getting an Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card. On the other hand, Intel has also indicated that in this case it will be necessary to perform a motherboard firmware update.

We will have to wait for the launch of the Intel Arc Alchemist to be able to answer all those questions that have remained in the air. We still don’t have an exact release date, but the latest information we saw pointed to this summer, so in theory they should arrive before the end of August.

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