Inevitably, whenever a new SKU of graphics cards gets launched, people are going to compare and contrast to see which is better, and that makes perfect sense from a consumer perspective. Take, as an example, the Nvidia RTX 3050 going against the AMD RX 6500 XT. Since Intel announced it was launching its own range of Arc GPUs, there have been whispers that the first round could take on some of team green's own products, and it looks as though that could be the case after all.
In a recent benchmark test of the upcoming Intel Arc "Alchemist," with results being posted by Twitter user APISAK, there's a chance that team blue could outshine Nvidia's RTX 3070 Ti. Comparing the two side-by-side, it can be seen that, as well as ranking higher overall, the Arc has a score of 9,017.52 in terms of million pixels per second, or Mpix/s, when compared to the latter which scores 8,369.51 Mpix/s.
Does this mean that Intel's upcoming graphics card is better in general? It's hard to say, but given that early leaks showed the Alchemist could best the RTX 3070 Ti, this latest result seems to show that that's where the card is heading. Of course, this result is based on a GPU that's not yet released. It's best to hold final judgement until launch day when reviewers and consumers will be, hopefully, getting their hands on them and can give a much more accurate critique of it. In general, though, it seems as though Intel is on the warpath to show Nvidia a thing or two.
However, as it stands, it's not quite clear when these latest combatants will launch the card. It's possible the Arc Alchemist may miss its Q1 2022 window, as noted through a very sly and subtle change on the company website, so at the time of writing, there's not a lot of certainty when it will launch, but it will be in Intel's best interest to get it out sooner rather than later.
That is, of course, down to product availability. While Nvidia does say GPU shortages may ease this year, although that's likely more in relation to its own graphics cards, Intel, and other hardware companies, are releasing products into an uncertain market. It's entirely possible that the Alchemist may be able to pit itself against some of its rival's, but it's not going to count for much if no one can purchase any of it, as AMD has very recently discovered.
Source: SiSoftware (Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti), SiSoftware (Intel Arc Alchemist)