Peter "Shamino" Tan, a renowned overclocking expert at Asus, has developed a new tool for Intel's Arc graphics cards, the Arc OC Tool (opens in new tab) (via Tom's Hardware (opens in new tab )). This is the first overclocking tool created by a third party that works with Intel GPUs.

Overclocking Arc graphics is already possible thanks to Intel's own Arc Control (opens in new tab) app. However, this is a relatively limited tool. Meanwhile, popular third-party tools, including MSI's Afterburner, do not yet support Intel cards.

Tan, an Asus employee, is told that the Arc OC Tool works with all Intel Arc graphics cards, regardless of vendor. However, the tool is not an official Intel or Asus release and comes with a clear "use at your own risk" warning.

The Arc OC Tool supports both traditional static and offset overclocking, which locks the GPU to a specific frequency. The latter hooks into the GPU's voltage curve and adjusts the frequency on the fly.

The tool comes with a special warning about manual voltage settings being problematic. Our advice is that if in doubt, don't touch it or something could pop; it could be just the Intel GPU, or it could be the whole PC.

Of course, a little overclocking won't turn an Intel Arc A770 (open in new tab) into an Nvidia RTX 4090 (open in new tab) killer. But tools like this are another step in Intel Arc's journey to become a truly competitive player in the gaming graphics market. As is often said, every little thing helps.