Intel ARC and the Latest Drivers: Does this bode Well for ARC's future?

[Grim5]

New driver out today with new performance gains in a range of games

Forza Motorsport (DX12)	Up to 19% uplift at 1440p with High settings
Resident Evil 4 (DXR)	Up to 27% uplift at 1080p with High Ray Tracing settings
The Last of Us Part 1 (DX12)	Up to 12% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
War Thunder (DX11)	Up to 9% uplift at 1080p with Maximum settings
Payday 3 (DX11)	Up to 37% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Naraka: Bladepoint (DX11)	Up to 5% uplift at 1080p with Highest settings
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (DX11)	Up to 32% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Final Fantasy XIV Online (DX11)	Up to 7% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition (DX11)	Up to 42% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (DX11)	Up to 88% uplift at 1080p with High settings
Total War: Warhammer 2 (DX11)	Up to 10% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Tomb Raider (DX11)	Up to 10% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Mad Max (DX11)	Up to 6% uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (DX11)	Up to 14% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (DX11)	Up to 90% uplift at 1080p with Extra settings
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (DX11)	Up to 119% uplift at 1080p with High settings
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (DX11)	Up to 8% uplift at 1080p with Very High settings
BeamNG.drive (DX11)	Up to 10% uplift at 1080p with High settings
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (DX11)	Up to 22% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings
Divinity: Original Sin – Enhanced Edition (DX11)	Up to 9% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings

 

[Freddie1980]

Good to see Intel working on the drivers, all this work will pay for itself when Battlemage gets released. I do wonder though at what point a performance uplift does a 'gain' become a 'fix'?

 

[Quartz]

I do wonder though at what performance uplift does a 'gain' become a 'fix'?

Some coding optimisations can produce massive improvements. For example, changing a function's time from O(n^2) to O(n) or O(n) to O(log(n)).

 

[thesnowdog1971]

Glad that they seem to be knocking out these drivers pretty well so far.

I'm going to be after a GPU in April or May next year with an £800 budget.

The current Intel cards aren't beefy enough for me, I'm looking for 7900XT or 4070Ti sort of power.

Battlemage sounds like it's going to be in that sort of ballpark, going by leaks so far.

Does anyone have a clue about the release date? Or the price?

 

[Quartz]

Does anyone have a clue about the release date?

Q2 2024 is the current rumour but Intel apparently already have chips for testing so Q1 may be possible. Nobody outside Intel really knows.

 

[Freddie1980]

Glad that they seem to be knocking out these drivers pretty well so far.

I'm going to be after a GPU in April or May next year with an £800 budget.

The current Intel cards aren't beefy enough for me, I'm looking for 7900XT or 4070Ti sort of power.

Battlemage sounds like it's going to be in that sort of ballpark, going by leaks so far.

Does anyone have a clue about the release date? Or the price?

Nobody knows, I'm not even sure if Intel has an exact date at this point. We do know the first Battlemage silicon is in Intel's labs being tested which means we're likely to see a retail release 1h 2024. IMO they have got to get that out by Q1 2024 if they want any chance of keeping Battlemage relevant.

 

[Quartz]

IMO they have got to get that out by Q1 2024 if they want any chance of keeping Battlemage relevant.

Q1 would be ideal but thanks to Nvidia switching to a 3 year cycle, even late 2024 won't hurt much. They may find that they are competing with new GPUs from AMD but that will only affect the price.

 

[Angilion]

I think they're in with a chance with their second swing at it. I doubt if Battlemage will be as late as Alchemist, nor as badly supported by the software side. They must have learned a lot from their fumble with Alchemist. I hope.

It would feel like a bit of an odd back to front turnaround for me to have an AMD CPU and an Intel graphics card, but I go on whatever looks like the best performance at a price I'm willing to pay. I'd buy Tesco own brand hardware if they made it and it was good.

 

[thesnowdog1971]

I think they're in with a chance with their second swing at it. I doubt if Battlemage will be as late as Alchemist, nor as badly supported by the software side. They must have learned a lot from their fumble with Alchemist. I hope.

It would feel like a bit of an odd back to front turnaround for me to have an AMD CPU and an Intel graphics card, but I go on whatever looks like the best performance at a price I'm willing to pay. I'd buy Tesco own brand hardware if they made it and it was good.

I think Amazon do some minor Amazon Basics hardware. Can't remember where I heard that now.

But it's probably a pile of old pants lol

 

[Aretak]

Good to see Intel working on the drivers, all this work will pay for itself when Battlemage gets released. I do wonder though at what point a performance uplift does a 'gain' become a 'fix'?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was certainly just plain broken on Arc. A 119% uplift sounds amazing without context, but you also have to consider that it sometimes dipped below 20fps before this update, with the GPU practically idling all the while (suggesting a driver problem).