Intel Confirms Arc G3’s Existence, New Chip Set To Target Gaming Handhelds

Intel is entering the gaming handheld market proper, at least going by the words of its senior figures. Specifically, in an interview conducted by PC Games Hardware, Intel VP & GM of Enthusiast Channel Robert Hallock has verbally confirmed the existence of the “Arc G3” series of processors, which is expected to be the competitor of AMD’s Ryzen Z series.

Intel Arc G3 Exists

Intel’s upcoming Arc G3 series was first discovered by Videocardz, and similar to Ryzen Z series, it points to two models acting as offshoots from the main laptop-focused lineup. Intel has officially confirmed that it will focus on gaming handhelds before, but the company has not said anything about releasing a dedicated line of processors for it up until this point, and it has been implicitly confirmed by Robert Hallock. In response to the Panther Lake-based handheld chip’s launch timing, he commented:

I actually don’t work on Arc G3 all the time. Sorry, I truly don’t know. What I will say in general, as a comment about CPUs like that, CPUs that fit in smaller appliances, especially like very small compact notebooks – the ones that are razor-thin or handhelds – those marketing life cycles are way longer than most desktop PC enthusiasts will understand.

Let’s quickly recap on the supposed Arc G3 series lineup. Based on Videocardz’s information, there will be two chips – Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme – and both are loosely based on the Core Ultra 300 series (Panther Lake) processors while featuring the Arc B-series GPUs onboard found on the X-series variants.

Supposedly, the standard model will feature a 10-core Arc B370 graphics, while the Extreme variant will pack a 12-core Arc B390 graphics; in both cases, the clock speeds are lower than that of the laptop-bound counterparts. Both chips also come with 2P+8E+4LPE core configuration – two less P-cores than the Panther Lake flagships. They’re also likely paired with slightly slower LPDDR5X-8533 memory than the laptop equivalents, which uses LPDDR5X-9600 as standard, and power draw is said to be 25W PBP, with turbo power (MTP) up to 65W and 80W.

There is a good chance we might see the new lineup as early as this June on the Computex show floor, and it is said that MSI Claw – which historically has already featured Intel processors before – will be among the first to use the new chip. Based on the brands shown in one of Intel’s previous keynotes, it is possible that Acer is onboard as soon as the new chip is ready, too.

Pokdepinion: AMD has really slowed down its pace on the consumer segment, and it looks like Intel is ready to strike back soon.