Intel delays Arc A5 and A7 desktop graphics cards until ‘later this summer’

Intel is delaying the release of its Arc A5 and A7 graphics cards for desktop PCs until the summer. A3 budget video cards should be released in the second quarter, although that will initially only happen in China. The desktop cards have not yet been formally introduced.

The first Arc A3 graphics cards will go to system builders in China in the second quarter. This means that they will reach manufacturers of complete PCs by the end of June at the latest. Single-copy sales through stores and web shops in China ‘follow soon after’, writes Intel. It is not clear whether that will also take place in the second quarter. The next step is to make the video cards available worldwide. Intel says it makes sense to serve the Chinese market first, because budget video cards are in high demand there and many video card manufacturers are based there.

Higher-end graphics cards in the Arc A5 and A7 series will be made available to system builders “later this summer.” After that, the availability in single sales will follow, according to Intel. This wording may mean that the video cards will not be available as separate components until after the summer.

The introduction of Arc video cards is slow and slow than Intel initially suggested. At the beginning of this year, the company said its desktop GPUs would be released in the first quarter, followed by desktop variants in the second quarter.

Several laptops with Arc A3 video cards have been announced, but they are not or hardly available in practice. Also, no review copies have been made available. It was only this week that the first benchmarks of the A370M GPU, which were made by PCWorld at an Intel office, appeared.

According to Intel, Samsung laptops with the Arc A370M are on sale in South Korea. The company had expected that these would now be more widely available, but that has been delayed due to software problems and new corona lockdowns. This month, the laptops should be more widely available, according to Intel. Laptops with Arc A5 and A7 GPUs would follow at the beginning of the summer.