Intel Arc Alchemist Xe-HPG DG2 desktop card may sport a dual-slot, dual-cooler design, details of Intel's own AI-based supersampling tech to be revealed later this week

Intel recently announced that the upcoming Xe-HGP products for gamers and content creators will be brought together under the Arc branding. This includes the first generation Xe-HPG DG2 GPU, which is codenamed Alchemist. While Intel hasn't shown off any Arc GPUs in flesh just yet, its teaser video does point to a possible dual-slot dual-cooler design.

Intel Graphics tweeted a drone show video revealing the new Arc branding. In the video, we can see the drones forming an outline of a desktop card. The GPU outline indicates a dual-slot, dual-cooler design, which can be expected at least for the mid-range and above offerings.

Back in April, Tom from the YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead leaked what is likely to be an engineering sample of the Arc Alchemist DG2 desktop card. Interestingly, the drone outline posted by Intel also seems to resemble that card right down to the curves on the shroud and the presence of dual 9-blade fans. Though Intel officially hasn't detailed any specs, it is likely that this design of the card would have been finalized by now. 

Tom also indicated back then that the leaked engineering sample was that of the DG2-512 variant with 4,096 cores and up to 16 GB GDDR6 VRAM with a 275 W TDP. This 512 EU Arc Alchemist SKU is speculated to potentially compete against the likes of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and the AMD Radeon RX 6800. Next gen AMD RDNA 3 and Nvidia Lovelace parts are expected only towards the end of 2022, so Intel will have enough window to prove it's competitiveness if Arc's launch goes according to plan in early 2022.

The other interesting aspect is that Intel may detail its AI-based supersampling implementation as early as later this week. Intel's VP of Graphics Research Anton Kaplanyan tweeted that Intel Arc offers full DirectX 12 Ultimate support including mesh shaders, high-performance ray tracing, sampler feedback, variable rate shading, and "quality neural supersampling". This confirms that, unlike AMD and like Nvidia, Intel will rely on AI to do the supersampling math.

Kaplanyan also confirmed that Intel's supersampling will "deliver high-qussality visuals at a lower cost". What exactly that means is anybody's guess at this point. That being said, Intel's Raja Koduri did state earlier that Intel is open to exploring AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) implementation as well. 

Intel is also yet to reveal the marketing moniker for its supersampling tech. It could likely be christened XeSS, but we should be knowing in a few days from now.

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