There are a lot of graphics APIs on the market right now, all of them with very similar characteristics to each other today and where the differences are minimal. However, all of them are single-platform. Whether at the hardware or operating system level. Therefore, the Khronos API and OpenGL’s successor is the only multi-platform one. The last? The announcement that ARC Alchemist supports Vulkan 1.3 . Something that really should not surprise us.
We cannot say that Vulkan is in a good state of health, it is not only the slowness in which the Khronos group releases updates that is the problem, but also the existing sabotage in the industry. Thus, Microsoft, taking advantage of its control and ownership over Windows, does everything possible so that DirectX 12 Ultimate becomes the star graphics API. As for Apple, the same can be said by having Metal. The only market where Vulkan matters is for Linux games and especially in relation to the Proton interpreter. Which is used to be able to run Windows games in the free operating system. So the API support in Intel graphics makes them one more option.
What ARC Alchemist cards do Vulkan support?
Well, specifically and as you can see in the image below, there are five models in total, which correspond to the models that we will see appear on laptops. So this means that Intel already has them ready and we should see them appear on the market in the coming months or weeks within the different gaming models.
At the moment we are still waiting for its launch in the West, since they are only found in the Asian market. Intel’s argument for not launching them? At the moment the drivers are not good enough. Although we suspect that there are other reasons. Especially related to the ARC Alchemist release timing.
What about desktop graphics cards?
The unknown, however, is in the desktop models, which must be based on the same chips, but at higher clock speeds. The fact that the Khronos group has not yet certified the dedicated graphics card models makes our suspicions about the launch of the ARC Alchemist negative, to say the least. At the moment we have only seen one of the cards in a photo, but nobody has been able to prove it. Normally, the Vulkan drivers would work for all ARC Alchemists. Let’s not forget that a laptop graphics card is exactly the same as a desktop one, but with a lower clock speed and lower consumption.
On the other hand, the features of Vulkan today are almost identical to that of DirectX 12 Ultimate, so the fact that Intel graphics support it is no surprise and would not be newsworthy either. As we have told you, the issue is not in the support of the API, but rather that the desktop versions that we should supposedly see in a few months or weeks are not mentioned. Which should set off all the alarms regarding its release.
