Intel officially launches the Arc G3 series of CPUs for gaming handhelds

Intel has officially introduced the Arc G-Series processor family, its first lineup of chips designed from the ground up specifically for gaming handheld PCs. The series launched on May 28 with two SKUs: the Arc G3 and the Arc G3 Extreme, both built on the Panther Lake architecture (Intel Core Ultra Series 3) and manufactured on Intel's 18A process node.

Both chips share the same 14-core CPU layout, with 2 Cougar Cove P-Cores, 8 Darkmont E-Cores, and 4 Darkmont LP E-Cores. The Arc G3 boosts up to 4.6 GHz on the P-Cores with a configurable TDP of 8W to 30W, while the Arc G3 Extreme tops out at 4.7 GHz with a slightly wider 8W to 35W envelope. Both share base frequencies of 1.9 GHz on P-Cores and 1.5 GHz on E-Cores and LP E-Cores, and support LPDDR5X-8533 memory.

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The main differentiator between the two SKUs is the integrated graphics. The Arc G3 comes with the Arc B370 iGPU, a 10-core Xe3 configuration clocked at 2.2 GHz. The Arc G3 Extreme steps it up with the Arc B390 iGPU, a 12-core Xe3 design running at 2.3 GHz. For connectivity, both chips pack integrated Wi-Fi 7 R2, dual Bluetooth 6, and Thunderbolt 4 with up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth.

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On the GPU feature side, both chips support real-time ray tracing, DirectX 12 Ultimate, and XeSS 3, which combines AI-based upscaling (XeSS Super Resolution), multi-frame generation, and Xe Low Latency for reduced input lag. Intel is also offering Day-0 driver support and Precompiled Shaders, which pull pre-built shader caches from Intel's cloud to speed up game load times on supported titles. These CPUs are also optimized for XBOX mode, allowing for immersive, full-screen gaming on Windows 11 handhelds.

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While there have previously been several rumored handhelds with Arc G3 chips, the first devices confirmed to ship with the Arc G-Series chips are the Acer Predator Atlas 8, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, and a device from OneXPlayer. Broader OEM availability is expected to begin in June 2026 and continue rolling out through the rest of the year.

Intel is stepping into a handheld market that AMD's Ryzen Z-series has dominated for years, powering the Steam Deck, ROG Ally X, and Lenovo Legion Go S. If leaked benchmarks are anything to go by, the Arc G3 family is Intel's most serious attempt yet to carve out a share of that space with a chip actually built for the form factor.