Gerry Palmers Tech 09.10.2022 00:Sep AM EDT

Intel Unloads Specs on Arc GPUs, Details on How they Stack Up Against Rival Cards from Nvidia

Intel has revealed the specs of its upcoming A-series Arc graphics cards.

They comprise four different cards aimed at multiple tiers of gaming or creative applications-the A380, A580, A750, and A770.

How Intel GPUs are Categorized

Just like their CPUs they will be split across different tiers including Intel Arc 3, 5, and 7 graphics. With 7 beiong "High Performance Gaming", 5 being "Advanced Gaming" and 3 being "Enhanced Gaming". Here's the specs:

The entry-level model, the A380, with its 6GB of Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) memory, 2000MHz clock speed, and 8 processing cores, and closely akin to the Nvidia GTX 1660 Super.

The midtier option, the A580, brings up the performance capability with 24 processing cores, 8GB of video RAM (VRAM), and a memory clock speed of 1700MHz. On paper, the A580 would rival Nvidia's RTX 3070.

Intel is also releasing two high-end graphics cards, the A750 and A770. The A750 has 8GB of VRAM, 28 processing cores, and a clock speed of 2050MHz. It is considered similar to the Radeon RX 6600XT.

The A770 will have configurations of either 8GB or 16GB of VRAM, 32 processing cores, and a clock speed of 2100MHz. The Radeon RX 6900XT is similar to the 16GB model of this graphics card.

These comparisons are referenced from the specs presented by the chipmakers rolling out these cards, and would not indicate real-world performance.

While no release date for the new graphics cards from Intel have been announced, 48 benchmarks noted by Intel are available to show how they compare to Nvidia's RTX 3060. However, without extensive organic benchmarks or pricing information, it's downright challenging to determine how the Intel A-series stacks up to the current lineup of graphics cards from Nvidia or AMD.

A-Series Gaming Features Touted

Specs are only half the story, though, and Intel is quick to emphasize that the latest features gamers want will also come as part of Arc. Every Arc A-Series GPU will support ray tracing, Xess upscaling, HDR, variable refresh rate, customizable performance, and dedicated video encoding hardware. It all sounds pretty good, but until we actually get to pay with these things, final judgment must be reserved.

Intel's Arc GPUs were touted as the first "real" dedicated Intel graphics cards since the i740 back in 1998 - or technically, a proper disparate GPU since the Intel Xe DG1. The competition among the best graphics cards remains fierce and tight, and Intel's present integrated graphics solutions basically don't meet independent GPU benchmarks: UHD Graphics 630 sits at 1.8% of the RTX 3090 based on just 1080p medium performance, as noted by Tom's Hardware.

The challenge Intel currently faces in entering the dedicated GPU market can't be ignored. AMD's Big Navi / RDNA 2 architecture has competed with Nvidia's Ampere architecture since late 2020. While Intel's Xe GPUs were released in 2020, with its Tiger Lake mobile processors, and the Xe DG1 was unveiled in the middle of 2021, these offerings could not compete with even GPUs from several previous generations. Overall, Xe DG1 performed similar to Nvidia's mediocre GT 1030 GDDR5 released inMay 2017. It scored a little better than half the output of 2016's GTX 1050 2GB, despite providing twice the memory.