Intel Arc GPU Re-Review: New Drivers, New Performance?

[sorten]

Dollar normalized appears to indicate they’re factoring in the price drop, not just the performance increase. That might explain why there was minimal improvement in some of the games you tested that were included in the presentation.

Yep, I think you figured it out. I reviewed the release announcement where they published the performance chart posted above, and here's the quote:

DX9 improvements don’t mean DirectX 11 and 12 get left out in the rain. Some games get a modest improvement of a few percent with better stability being the focus.

This chart was released the same day they announced a price drop.

Intel Arc Graphics Updates, New Bundle, and Pricing

Today we are excited to unveil the latest advancements in our Intel Arc A750 and A770 desktop GPUs.

game.intel.com

 

[mbk34]

Perhaps I'm being stupid but I can't see the A750 data in the charts.

Also, is it expected that the Arc GPUs will eventually become better than the competitor GPU's once the drivers are sorted as the hardware specs seem better (sometimes way better)?

 

[neeyik]

Perhaps I'm being stupid but I can't see the A750 data in the charts.

Steve only had time to quickly do the A750 for the cost-per-frame results (see the second set of charts in that section of the article).

Also, is it expected that the Arc GPUs will eventually become better than the competitor GPU's once the drivers are sorted as the hardware specs seem better (sometimes way better)?

On paper the likes of the A770 is far better than the RTX 3060 and RX 6700, but the reality is that the Arc architecture isn't particularly effective when it comes to handling data internally, and the SIMD8 structure really needs to be heavily loaded with lots of threads, all the time, to work at its best. The latter can only be fixed with a new architecture, whereas the latter needs to be addressed through a combination of a superior driver compiler and having games coded for this.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Am I missing something.
I have driver 4146 installed (Feb 28th date)
I don't see a 4123 driver version.
Is 4123 a dev driver.

The improvements on the 4146 driver are pretty good. I have had my A750 since December and each driver update has seen good gains, even at 1440p. I'm just a little confused on your driver version.

 

[neeyik]

I don't see a 4123 driver version.
Is 4123 a dev driver.

It was a beta release that's now been superseded by the 4146 WHQL version.

 

[Julnor]

If Intel really wants to sell these not only do they need to drop the price, but they need to go back and enable resizable BAR for Skylake and older CPUs, iirc it's only been available since 8th gen and performance is horrendous without it. If you're aiming at the mid-range there are probably older CPUs involved, if someone is going to do a complete new PC build in this environment they'll probably also accept they have to pay a premium on GPU, and also probably won't beta test the hardware for Intel.

 

[KofeViR]

When Intel gets 20A and 18A ready, they could acually make dirt cheap GPUs without using 3rd party like TSMC. I think they will be competitive then. Arc is too expensive for now.

Maybe Intel 4 node will do.

 

[highwind]

In Europe the Rx 6650 XT is 300 Euro, VAT included. That is 33% lower than Arc A770 with a 2-3% better perf also. That would look real great if not 2 year old tech and that low 128 bit bus.

Stupid comparison as the A770 with its 16GB VRAM isnt really usefull for gaming...

The A750 8GB would be the fitting comparison and atleast in Germany the ASRock A750 8GB is 260 Euro while the cheapest RX 6600/6650 is 300 Euro and the cheapest 3060 8GB is 320 Euro and thats a noticeable advantage towards the A750 which roughly equals the RX 6600/6650 at WQHD and has better RT performance as well (which might be irrelevant for current games as the RT-performance of those cards is too low anyways, but it is relevant for revamped classic games with RT support like Quake or Half Life)

And the very same card goes for 229 USD at Newegg in the US... thats only ~215 Euros

 

[Todd Sauve]

For those who are interested.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm really conflicted about this because on one hand, sure, I want more competition in the video card space.

On the other hand though, the idea of supporting Intel is just offensive to me.

Ye Olde Catch-22

 

[Hodor]

Anyone having an Intel Arc card?
If so, how are you satisfied with it?