Following an initial tease at CES 2026 and a string of leaks, rumours claim Intel is finally ready to lift the lid on its upcoming handheld gaming platform, dubbed ‘Arc G3’. If true, we’ll learn about these new chips as early as May 28.
This is according to hardware news outlet Videocardz, who claims to have obtained information pertaining to the launch of Arc G3. This release will mark the third-generation of Intel SoCs on handheld devices, hence the naming scheme. However, the company is providing an entire platform this time around, rather than reusing existing Core Ultra Series 3 chips in a new form factor.
This change in strategy for Intel will see the firm mirror rival AMD, which has seen success in the handheld space with the Ryzen Z2 and Z1 series in systems like the MSI Claw A8 and ROG Xbox Ally X. It seems Arc G3 has attracted a similarly wide range of partners, with the platform seeing interest from Acer, GPD, Microsoft, MSI, among others.
While the official Arc G3 unveiling should reveal more about the systems it will power, prior leaks have shone on a light on potential specifications for the platform’s SoCs. Following in the footsteps of its aforementioned competition, Intel will apparently debut a base Arc G3 as well as an Arc G3 Extreme variant.
According to the leaks, the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme will arrive with a 14-core processor, with two performance cores, eight efficient cores, and four low-power efficient cores, paired with 32GB of LPDDR5X-8,533. However, there’s a 100MHz gap in boost clocks between the two chips, at 4.6GHz and 4.7GHz, respectively.
All that said, the main draw of the Arc G3 (Extreme) will be the B370 and B390 integrated graphics. Alleged benchmarks place the iGPUs’ 3DMark Time Spy performance close to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop. That’s not bad going considering we’re comparing to a dedicated graphics chip, but it’s ultimately frame rates that will be of the most interest.
Given Computex 2026 is around the corner, an imminent announcement concerning the Arc G3 platform is perfectly plausible. Should Intel lift the veil on its new handheld offering, we’ll be sure to get all the latest details right from the show floor.
Until then, check out our MSI Claw 8 AI+ review for an in-depth look at Intel’s most-recent handheld.
