Intel has been quietly working on something interesting. A new leak has revealed two unannounced chips, the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme, built specifically for handheld gaming consoles. These chips are expected to show up sometime in Q2 2026, and they could shake up the handheld gaming market in a big way.
Shortly after Intel revealed its full Panther Lake lineup, rumors started swirling about two chips that didn’t make the cut. These were originally designed to compete with AMD’s Ryzen Z2 series, but their launch was delayed for reasons we don’t know. Now, one of them has resurfaced online.
An X leaker, HXL, posted a CPU-Z screenshot showing what appears to be one of these chips. It reportedly packs 14 CPU cores and offers a boost clock of 4.7 GHz with a 25W TDP.
Is the leak even real, though?
Not everyone is convinced. Jaykihn, a popular Intel insider with a solid track record, says the listing is fake. According to him, the real Arc G3 Extreme has a boost clock of 4.7 GHz and 12 MB of L3 cache, while the leaked listing shows 18 MB, which he says belongs to a spoofed chip.
He also said that the chipset’s name should be Intel Arc G3 Extreme, and not Intel Core G3 Extreme, which is what the leaked image reads. That being said, Jaykihn doesn’t deny the existence of such a chip.
What’s the difference between Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme?
According to Notebookcheck, the biggest difference between the two chips lies in their graphics. The Arc G3 Extreme is tipped to pack an Arc B380 GPU with 12 Xe cores, while the standard Arc G3 comes with an Arc B360 and 10 Xe cores.
We do hope that Intel is working on chipsets targeting handheld gaming devices, as that market is cornered by AMD offerings. More competition is always good for consumers as it promotes innovation and decreases prices in the long run.