Intel makes a bid for handheld gaming PCs with new Arc G3 processors
Intel makes a bid for handheld gaming PCs with new Arc G3 processors
英特尔推出全新 Arc G3 处理器，正式进军掌上游戏 PC 市场
Most of the Steam Deck imitators on the market right now use AMD silicon, specifically the Ryzen Z-series chips. These are the same chips AMD makes for regular laptops, but with different power settings better suited to a compact handheld system. 目前市面上大多数模仿 Steam Deck 的掌机都采用 AMD 芯片，具体来说是 Ryzen Z 系列。这些芯片与 AMD 为普通笔记本电脑制造的芯片相同，但采用了更适合紧凑型掌机系统的功耗设置。
There are handhelds based on Intel silicon (MSI’s Claw is the main one), but Intel hasn’t yet tried making silicon marketed specifically for that purpose. Today, the company is throwing its hat in the ring with two Intel Arc G-series processors, which will allow gaming handhelds to leverage the company’s genuinely quite good Arc B-series integrated GPUs. 虽然市面上已有基于英特尔芯片的掌机（主要是微星的 Claw），但英特尔此前并未尝试专门针对该用途进行芯片营销。今天，英特尔正式入局，推出了两款 Arc G 系列处理器，这将使游戏掌机能够利用英特尔表现相当出色的 Arc B 系列集成显卡。
Intel says that several Arc G-series handhelds will arrive “starting in June 2026, with broader availability throughout the year.” These systems will include a new MSI Claw model, a Predator Atlas 8 from Acer, and a device from OneXPlayer. 英特尔表示，多款 Arc G 系列掌机将于“2026 年 6 月起陆续上市，并在全年内实现更广泛的供应”。这些设备将包括新款微星 Claw、宏碁 Predator Atlas 8 以及来自壹号本（OneXPlayer）的一款设备。
Intel normally uses its “Arc” branding for integrated and dedicated GPUs, but in this case, the “Arc” brand encompasses the entire chip, including the CPU, GPU, NPU, and other components. The G-series chips are similar in many ways to the Core Ultra Series 3 chips (codenamed Panther Lake) that Intel is currently shipping in high-end thin-and-light laptops. They use the same CPU and GPU architectures and make use of Intel’s 18A manufacturing process (among others). But they ship with a slightly different combination of CPU and GPU cores that doesn’t quite match up with any of the Core Ultra processors. 英特尔通常将“Arc”品牌用于集成显卡和独立显卡，但在这种情况下，“Arc”品牌涵盖了整个芯片，包括 CPU、GPU、NPU 和其他组件。G 系列芯片在许多方面与英特尔目前用于高端轻薄笔记本电脑的 Core Ultra Series 3 芯片（代号 Panther Lake）相似。它们使用相同的 CPU 和 GPU 架构，并采用了英特尔的 18A 制造工艺（以及其他工艺）。但它们的 CPU 和 GPU 核心组合略有不同，与任何现有的 Core Ultra 处理器都不完全匹配。
Both the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme include 14 CPU cores: two high-performance P-cores, eight E-cores, and four lower-power LP E-cores. The main difference is the GPU; the Arc G3 Extreme uses a fully enabled Arc B390 GPU with 12 Xe cores, while the Arc G3 includes an Arc B370 GPU with 10 Xe cores. The G Extreme also has slightly higher CPU and GPU clock speeds and marginally higher maximum power draw. Both chips also include a neural processing unit (NPU) fast enough to support Windows 11’s Copilot+ features, if you plan to dock your handheld and use it like a regular Windows PC. Arc G3 和 Arc G3 Extreme 均包含 14 个 CPU 核心：两个高性能 P 核、八个 E 核和四个低功耗 LP E 核。主要区别在于 GPU；Arc G3 Extreme 使用了拥有 12 个 Xe 核心的完整版 Arc B390 GPU，而 Arc G3 则配备了拥有 10 个 Xe 核心的 Arc B370 GPU。G Extreme 的 CPU 和 GPU 时钟频率略高，最大功耗也稍高一些。这两款芯片还包含一个速度足够支持 Windows 11 Copilot+ 功能的神经处理单元（NPU），以备用户将掌机连接底座当作普通 Windows PC 使用。
In our testing, the Arc B390 GPU could run up to twice as fast as AMD’s Radeon 890M, a close relative of the best GPU available in the Ryzen Z series. But that performance was heavily dependent on how much power the chip was allowed to use, and the lower TDP and smaller heatsinks in a gaming handheld may limit its performance somewhat. AMD still hasn’t shipped any integrated GPUs that take advantage of its newest RDNA4 graphics architecture, and its RDNA3 architecture is several years old, which has given Intel an opening here. 在我们的测试中，Arc B390 GPU 的运行速度最高可达 AMD Radeon 890M 的两倍，后者是 Ryzen Z 系列中最强 GPU 的近亲。但这种性能表现很大程度上取决于芯片的功耗限制，而游戏掌机较低的 TDP 和较小的散热器可能会在一定程度上限制其性能。AMD 尚未推出任何利用其最新 RDNA4 图形架构的集成显卡，而其 RDNA3 架构已经问世多年，这为英特尔提供了切入点。
Intel’s press release mentions Windows 11’s Xbox Mode but not Valve’s SteamOS, which to date has only shipped on AMD-based PCs. But the recent SteamOS 3.8 preview mentioned “improved support” for both AMD- and Intel-based systems and included fixes targeting the MSI Claw. SteamOS might need more updates before becoming compatible with brand-new Intel chips like the Arc G-series, but if you prefer Valve’s gaming OS to Windows, it seems likely you’ll eventually be able to try SteamOS on these Intel chips. 英特尔的新闻稿提到了 Windows 11 的 Xbox 模式，但未提及 Valve 的 SteamOS，后者迄今为止仅在基于 AMD 的 PC 上运行。不过，最近的 SteamOS 3.8 预览版提到了对 AMD 和英特尔系统的“改进支持”，并包含了针对微星 Claw 的修复程序。SteamOS 可能需要更多更新才能兼容像 Arc G 系列这样全新的英特尔芯片，但如果你比起 Windows 更喜欢 Valve 的游戏操作系统，那么未来你很有可能在这些英特尔芯片上体验到 SteamOS。