The chip giant was very clear when talking about the necessary configuration to optimally drive the Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card, so much so that it even went so far as to say that if we don’t have a computer compatible with BAR technology with adjustable size it is better that we do not buy the product of the mentioned generation of graphics cards.

This may seem like a radical comment, but it makes sense as it is confirmed that a computer that does not have a Resizable BAR will significantly affect the performance of an Intel Arc Alchemist graphics card. This loss of performance can vary depending on the game and the model of the graphics card used, but in general we have seen values ​​that 30% to 50% lower performance.

This means that Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards will not run at full power on relatively old computers, and to get the most out of them, you’ll need at least a computer configured with Core Gen10 and Intel 400 chipset motherboardor in the case of AMD a Ryzen 3000 with a motherboard that has a 500 series chipset. Please note that the AMD 3000G is not included.

In the first case, we have to enable Resizable BAR in computer BIOS, and in the second we will have to activate SAM (Smart Access Memory). Both technologies have different names, but they are essentially the same allow the CPU to access the entire graphics memory of the GPUand no small part of it. This is what makes such a big difference in terms of performance.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean we won’t be able to mount an Intel Arc Alchemist with a Core Gen9 or earlier, or a Ryzen 2000 or earlier. We can install it and we said the graphics card will work but it will lose a lot of performance because we won’t be able to use Resizable BAR and SAM technologies. The performance difference will be enormous, as we have already mentioned, and for that reason it is not worth it.

Finally, Intel also confirmed it Arc Alchemists requires Windows 10 20H2 or Windows 11 as an operating system. These requirements are exclusive and mean that these graphics cards will not work on computers running older versions of Windows. If all goes according to plan, the Intel Arc A7 launch will take place on October 12th, although we’re still unclear on the level of availability they’ll have internationally.