Tuesday, June 7th 2022
Intel Arc A730M Tested in Games, Gaming Performance Differs from Synthetic
Intel Arc A730M "Alchemist" discrete GPU made headlines yesterday, when a notebook featuring it achieved a 3DMark TimeSpy score of 10,138 points, which would put its performance in the same league as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. The same source has taken the time to play some games, and come up with performance numbers that would put the A730M in a category lower than the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
The set of games tested is rather small—F1 2020, Metro Exodus, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but the three are fairly "mature" games (have been around for a while). The A730M is able to score 70 FPS at 1080p, and 55 FPS at 1440p in Metro Exodus. With F1 2020, we're shown 123 FPS (average) at 1080p, and 95 FPS avg at 1440p. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the A730M yields 38 FPS at 1080p, and 32 FPS at 1440p. These numbers roughly translate to the A730M being slightly faster than the desktop GeForce RTX 3050, and slower than the desktop RTX 3060, or in the league of the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. Intel is already handing out stable versions of Arc Alchemist graphics drivers, and the three are fairly old games, so this might not be a case of bad optimization.
Sources:
Golden Pig Update (Weibo), VideoCardz
The set of games tested is rather small—F1 2020, Metro Exodus, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but the three are fairly "mature" games (have been around for a while). The A730M is able to score 70 FPS at 1080p, and 55 FPS at 1440p in Metro Exodus. With F1 2020, we're shown 123 FPS (average) at 1080p, and 95 FPS avg at 1440p. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the A730M yields 38 FPS at 1080p, and 32 FPS at 1440p. These numbers roughly translate to the A730M being slightly faster than the desktop GeForce RTX 3050, and slower than the desktop RTX 3060, or in the league of the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. Intel is already handing out stable versions of Arc Alchemist graphics drivers, and the three are fairly old games, so this might not be a case of bad optimization.
66 Comments on Intel Arc A730M Tested in Games, Gaming Performance Differs from Synthetic
Some built in benches can have very low minimums cause it freezes for a split second when the benchmark starts up effectively ruining the minimum frame, seen this happening in various game benches on my PC before.
That said, I'm not expecting (or caring about) a 3090 killer, I just want another alternative in the $200-300 range. I'm still hoping Intel is on track to do that.
Now they have to REALLY work, fix all those bugs and check every possible setting in games that works with the new ARC series. It was expected they where having a huge task at hands, but failing to start a game like Shadow of The Tomb Raider in DirectX 12 mode is something that I wasn't expecting to read. I think people who respect themselves, even if they are the biggest Intel fans, will avoid ARC. Except if they only care about the media engine that is probably really good.
I argued that the Xe architecture and drivers have already had two years to mature in an earlier post so I'm well aware that Intel aren't making their first GPU ever.
Also, prior to Etherium, discrete GPU sales were falling every year And given how cyclical cryoto can be, I wouldn't expect these cards to be all that desirable to consumers (they will pick-up discounted 3050s after Ada releases.)
Theres not enough sustained growth from Crypto for a third player that's so far behind!
Revenue 79 billion USD
Profit 19.9 billion USD
Cash on Hand and Equivalents around 30 billion USD
It remains to be seen how serious they are about their commitment but they certainly have the means to bring some financial pain to Nvidia and AMD.
Think it was more intel was missing out on all the easy miner money than anything else.