Arc video cards, Intel answers doubts with new tests and transparency

In recent days Intel announced the first solutions Arc “Alchemist” addressed to the world of workstationbut last week, uninspiring news circulated about the company’s effort in the consumer arena, where its first dedicated GPUs of the modern era would be experiencing difficult times for a variety of reasons.

In days matters the US house responded in two ways. The first with un Q&A in which he took stock ofdriver optimization for Arc GPUs very transparently. The US company admitted that there is still a lot of work to be doneespecially when it comes to performance in securities DirectX 9 e 11. The problem had emerged in the first reviews, but also during a video in which LinusTechTips had shown how in Shadow of the Tomb Raider the Arc A770 lost 50% of the performance when switching from the DX12 API to the DX11 one.

In a video, Intel’s Tom Petersen explained what fans know well, which is that DirectX 11 and 9 work differently from the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. Older libraries rely more on the driver for optimizing GPU behavior in games in order to relieve developers of this chore and unleash their creative side. The behavior of modern APIs is different, which overturn the situation. DirectX 12 and Vulkan are “low-level” APIs that let game developers optimize certain aspects, such as graphics memory allocation.

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Unlike NVIDIA and AMD, which have been working on optimizations dedicated to old APIs for over a decade, Intel found itself at concentrate in a short time a job that, according to Petersen, will have to continue “forever” because there are many ways to optimize the drivers for the old API. To confirm these words is (indirectly) AMD, which has managed to improve the performance of its drivers with DX11 titles in recent weeks.

Intel’s experience with integrated GPU drivers didn’t prove to be an advantage – quite the opposite. According to CEO Pat Gelsinger, “we thought we could take advantage of the integrated graphics software stack, but it was totally inadequate for the performance and compatibility with the games we needed. So we’re not hitting our 4 million goal. of units in the dedicated GPU sector, although we are catching up and releasing better versions of the software. “

The second answer comes with the publication of a larger number of tests comparing the Arc A750 and the GeForce RTX 3060 (an EVGA custom XC Gaming) in games DX12 e Vulkan. Previously, Intel had only shown a few results, but has now expanded the range of titles by proposing tests at both 1080p and 1440p. The tabs are pretty close, with Intel’s proposal that the overall check of 3-5% depending on the API type and resolution.

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Intel so far has never released the technical specifications of the Arc A750 and the rumors do not agree, there are those who speak of 24 Xe-core and 12GB of GDDR6 memory on 192-bit bus and who of 28 Xe-core and 8GB of memory GDDR6 on 256-bit bus. In any case, what matters is the result and it does not seem bad, even if a lot will depend on the launch price: there are rumors of a list between 279 and 349 dollars.

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Either way, Intel’s graphics adventure is a “work in progress“, especially with the competition that plans to introduce new generations of GPUs by the end of the year timing of the first generation of Arc GPUs it is not the best and in recent weeks there are those, come Jon Peddie Researchhe even suggested to CEO Gelsinger of exit the business due to too strong competition and the huge investments required.

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“The best thing Intel could do right now is find a partner and sell off the group. It could also be disguised as a strategic move, just as they did by choosing TSMC to produce dedicated GPUs. Intel cannot continue to incur huge costs. pay a competing factory to produce the wafers and then ask governments to subsidize its investments in new factories that can’t even produce the components they are supposedly planning. Not only is this a bewildering investment strategy, but it is also embarrassing. “

To posterity the arduous sentence, but the hint is that Gelsinger, although he has already closed six businesses in which Intel has operated since he was CEO, does not intend to give up so easily, it would be a huge setback.