The Intel Arc owners thread

[Quartz]

See how different that is to Steve Burke's conclusions?

Actually, Owen has previously been positive about Arc. It all comes down to the games you run. One mix of games gives good results; another mix gives bad results. There's only so much time and they report what they find. That's why it's important to look at multiple reviews.

Having thought about his video a while I think this says more about game developers than Intel: they test their games on Nvidia and AMD GPUs well before release so bugs get reported and fixed. Notice how so often both have 'game ready drivers': this means that the old driver had problems with the game and that Nvidia and AMD have fixed those issues. But I expect they don't bother with Intel so Intel is months behind.

As for review sites, Hardware Unboxed were - much to their discredit - hugely contemptuous of Intel Arc well after release, often simply not bothering to include Arc in their tests. I'll take the honesty of Burke & Owen over HUB any day.

 

[Quartz]

I think the difference is running automated benchmarks vs actually spending time analysing the game through your mouse and screen.

Some do, some don't. This is actually where I rate Owen: he plays the games at least to some extent and doesn't just run benchmarks. For instance he will demonstrate the effects of certain graphical features by running around areas with those effects on and off. But there's much to be said for benchmarks: they provide a baseline across reviewers.

 

[Quartz]

New drivers (101.5330) available.

Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows*

This download installs Intel® Graphics Driver 32.0.101.6127/32.0.101.6044 for Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics, Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics, and Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors with Intel® Arc™ Graphics.

www.intel.com

Intel® Game On Driver support on Intel® Arc™ A-series Graphics and Intel® Core™ Ultra with Intel® Arc™ Graphics for:

• Nightingale*
• Pacific Drive*

Game performance improvements on Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics Products versus Intel® 31.0.101.5194 software driver for:

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey* (DX11) Up to 24% average FPS uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings
Fortnite* (DX12) Up to 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings and Nanite enabled
Remnant 2* (DX12) Up to 8% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings

 

[Quartz]

I also have an Nvidia bias when it comes to Intel ARC given Nvidia also offer better value.

This depends upon your price point. Nvidia have surrendered the sub £250 market.

 

[Quartz]

Gainward GeForce RTX 3060 Pegasus LHR 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Gainward GeForce RTX 3060 Pegasus LHR 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Which is completely monstered by the RX 6600, the A750, and maybe (I'm not sure) the A580. All cards that are considerably cheaper.

 

[Quartz]

Gamers Nexus report on Intel's response to their video

Interesting commentary on DX9 and DX11 developments.

And its £200, cheaper than the A750

The A750 has been cheaper. And Intel's real competitor to the RTX 3050 is the A580, not the A750. All three are overpriced IMHO.

 

[Quartz]

Battlemage will help somewhat, but even if intel manage to do the impossible and double their performance per watt (or the equivalent in die space), thats only 7800XT/4070 super performance.

Rumoured performance for the high end is a bit better than RTX 4070, and if that comes in at £400, that's £120 less than OCUK are currently charging for a 4070 or an in-stock 7800 XT. And who knows, maybe they'll improve the drivers even more and get somewhere near a 4080?

 

[Quartz]

I just looked on the U.S retailer that Steve used for pricing on the cards he used, he picked the cheaper A750 on there at £210, fair enough, but picked one of the more expensive RX 6600 at $200, there is one at $170 and there is a very much faster RX 6650 XT for $230.

Pricing changes from day to day. Notice that in the comparison video I posted the RTX 3050 is marked as $219 - far cheaper than today.

 

[Quartz]

Mainly positive comments with a few oddities. 'Solid' is his final judgement. He makes an excellent comment about Arc's real problem being mindshare - Radeon has a bit of the same problem.

 

[Quartz]

Yep, if they could release today it would be incredibly exciting.

Paul's Hardware have just received a mystery GPU...

 

[Quartz]

Pytorch now supports Arc.

Intel Arc GPUs Now Supported In The Intel Extension For PyTorch, Boosting AI, Deep-Learning & LLM Capabilities

Arc A-Series GPUs are now supported within the Intel Extension for PyTorch (IPEX), offering faster AI capabilities in deep learning & LLMs.

wccftech.com

No, I've never heard of Pytorch before.

 

[Quartz]

There's no way Battlemage is being sampled to reviewers and there no leaks at all. Must be some other card?

You're no fun!

Actually, there have been leaks about Battlemage

Your choice if you believe him.

 

[Quartz]

Good news for those playing Counterstrike 2

Re: Counterstrike 2 poor performance arc a770 16gb

Hello everyone, I have a quick update. The issue with the black screen when launching on Vulkan was reproduced and our debug team is looking into it. For the performance difference we ran benchmarks with the latest public driver 101.5194 (Deathmatch- 1440p/high settings) comparing with RTX 4060...

community.intel.com

1% behind a 4060 is good going!

 

[Quartz]

Someone has compiled a compatibility spreadsheet:

Intel ARC A770 Variants Compatibility List

ARC A770 Performance can vary,Tested / Community,Recommended GAME TITLE,COMPATIBILITY,TESTED ON DRIVER,REPORTS,Install/reinstall the lastest driver using DDU in safe mode, only if problems occur ! Dishonored 2,Okay,4.953,very high, AA can cause issues, game engine is blurry same as DH1,ReBar : O...

docs.google.com

 

[Quartz]

New drivers 31.0.101.5333 available. They're mainly aimed at laptop users but desktop users also benefit.

 

[Quartz]

Hardware Unboxed test the 6 GB RTX 3050, but of real interest is how well the A580 fares:

TLDW: the A580 fares rather well.

 

[Quartz]

ETA Prime tests the Arc A310 low profile

TLDW: better than an IGPU. Worth considering if you need a single-slot low profile GPU that doesn't need additional power.

 

[Quartz]

Level1Techs discuss the Flex170 and subscription-free GPU accelerated VDI:

It seems that the Flex 170 is actually an Arc A770 with knobs on and some A770s are the full deal, but Wendell didn't go into details.

 

[Quartz]

ETA Prime reviews the 6 GB A380

It's a very good overclocker.

 

[Quartz]

Gamers Nexus do a deep dive on optimising drivers focussing on Arc.