Intel’s first handheld gaming chip is the Arc G3, and this Acer is using it

is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

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Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution

Intel is barely in the handheld gaming PC space — but that might be about to change. After the embarrassment that was the first MSI Claw and the excellent MSI Claw 8 AI Plus that followed it, Intel announced it would create custom handheld gaming chips. Today, it’s formally announcing them as the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme.

There’s a lot we don’t know about the chips, but Intel’s confirming today that the Panther Lake variant contains two fewer CPU cores than Intel’s Panther Lake laptop chips, but feature a full compliment of Xe3 GPU cores to run games. (They have 2 P-cores, 8 E-eores, and 4 LP E-cores, plus up to 12 Xe3 graphics cores in total.)

And, they’ll feature in at least three handhelds: the leaked MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus, the just-announced OneXPlayer 3 coming in June, and the just-announced Acer Predator Atlas 8 — which just might wind up being Acer’s first handheld after the Acer Nitro Blaze 7, 8, and gigantic 11 went MIA.

The Predator Atlas 8, with dedicated Xbox Game Bar and “PredatorSense” buttons. Image: Acer

The new Atlas 8 will come in at least two variants, one with an Intel Arc G3 Extreme and its Arc B390 graphics with 12 Xe3 GPU cores, and one with an Intel Arc G3 and the Arc B370 with 10 Xe3 cores instead. Each is paired with 24GB of LPDDR5x RAM at 7467 MT/s, and cooled by “the first metal fan in a handheld” with 89 blades and a claimed 10 percent airflow increase over the competition.

The handheld will weigh around 810 grams (1.79lb) with a large 80Wh battery, or 770 grams (1.7lb) with an above-average 60Wh battery — presumably the higher end model comes with the bigger battery, like competing handhelds do.

All the ports are up on top. Image: Acer

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