For a long time, the marketplace for desktop graphics playing cards has had two gamers: AMD (previously ATI) and Nvidia. Intel determined to enter these hotly-contested waters in 2022 with its Arc collection of GPUs together with comparable devoted choices for laptops. According to a report on graphics card market share, Intel managed to seize 9 p.c of devoted desktop GPU gross sales by the top of the 2022 calendar 12 months—the identical quantity of the market that AMD had for a similar timeframe.

The figures come from Jon Peddie Research, which paints an in any other case dismal image for the present GPU market, following trends for PC sales in general. The similar report says that desktop graphics card gross sales in complete dropped by 24 p.c, the biggest drop in over a decade. And 9 p.c market share isn’t precisely one thing you parade in entrance of the shareholders, particularly when Nvidia continues to dominate with a near-monopoly at 82 p.c.

Jon Peddie Research

But taken within the context of a brand new competitor in an entrenched market section, even one with the huge sources of an organization like Intel, it’s a shocking accomplishment. Arc desktop chips have been maligned and delayed to the purpose the place some trade analysts puzzled if Intel was contemplating scrapping your entire multi-billion-dollar undertaking. And the corporate nonetheless isn’t able to compete on the GPU excessive finish, the place the largest slice of revenue is made. But coming into the house and grabbing a tie for the quantity two spot in lower than a calendar 12 months, by focusing on budget cards and specific performance targets, can solely be counted as a win.

For instance, the Arc A750—which simply recently got an official price cut from $290 to $250—is our pick for the best 1080p GPU for ray tracing. It’s not the form of blistering, benchmark-busting efficiency that will get you right into a YouTuber’s $10,000 fantasy PC construct, but it surely is the form of worth that sells a hell of plenty of playing cards to individuals who need to play PC video games on a finances.

On PCWorld’s The Full Nerd podcast, Intel’s Arc spokesman Tom Petersen advised us, “If you think about it, we’re one of the few companies in the world that can enter a large market like discrete graphics…Nvidia will probably continue to ignore us, but AMD cannot ignore us. And it’s going to become much more competitive over the years as we become more established.” (25:20 within the video beneath.) It’s price noting that Petersen’s final job was as Nividia’s Director of Technical Marketing.

Arc’s rise within the finances house is, certainly, unimaginable to disregard. It stays to be seen if Intel can leverage that momentum right into a extra dominant house on the high-end facet of the GPU market and whether or not it has the desire to enter that struggle.