The first benchmarks of Intel’s Arc A370M GPU have surfaced. Based on the higher-end Alchemist die, this mobile SKU features 3,072 shaders across 24 Xe-Cores, 24 RT units, and 12GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit bus. The graphics core will run at 1.1GHz under stock conditions and feature a TDP of 80-120W. As with existing NVIDIA/AMD designs, the clock speeds and TDP values will vary from vendor to vendor.
The below tests were conducted by an Asian outlet which is the only region where the 1st Gen Arc mobile GPUs have been launched. The Arc A730M was compared to the NVIDIA RTX 3060 (mobile), and I have to admit, the results are a bit surprising:
In Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition, the A730 actually manages to edge past the RTX 3060 by a few frames on average. This is a title that properly utilizes diffuse lighting with multiple bounces per ray, significantly stressing even the most powerful GPUs. This result indicates that Intel’s Arc Alchemist architecture is likely ahead of rival NVIDIA and AMD’s offerings when it comes to hardware-accelerated ray-tracing.
Unfortunately, the rest of the titles yield very expected results. The RTX 3060 wipes the floor with the A730, beating it by as much as 3x in Counter-Strike: GO.
These results indicate that while Intel’s GPU hardware is solid, the driver team still has a lot of work left to do. How many of them will be fixed by the time of the actual “launch” remains to the seen. Either way, I’m willing to bet that the 1st Gen Arc series will mostly exist as a paper product, overshadowed by the implementing launch of NVIDIA’s RTX 30 and AMD’s RX 7000 series GPUs.
