Intel Arc A770 and A750 Gaming Graphics Card Test Review/ Report / Challenge 2K Best Value for Money

Intel Arc A770 and A750 Review

Intel’s first gaming graphics cards, Arc A770 and A750 have officially lifted the performance ban. The new cards are expected to be launched on October 12. The starting price of $329 and $289 in US dollars locks in 2K and 1440p mainstream gamers. The new generation of Xe HPG architecture provides DX12, ray tracing, AI-driven XeSS upgrade technology, AV1 encoding and other new features that will be different from RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT, challenging the throne of the most cost-effective 2K.

2K, 1440p mainstream gaming graphics cards Intel Arc A770 and Arc A750 debut

Intel Arc A770 and A750 are the most powerful gaming GPUs currently code-named Alchemist and Xe HPG micro-architecture. The Arc A770 and A750 are for 2K/1440p and FHD 1080p gamers, respectively.

GPUs are designed for modern gaming.

In the past, the pricing of 1080p entry-level and 1440p mainstream graphics cards has also continued to increase. From GTX 960, and GTX 1060 to RTX 2060 and RTX 3060, the price band has reached $418. Therefore, Intel uses this point to cut into the “sweet spot” graphics card price band. Pricing starts at $329 for the Arc A770 and $289 for the A750.

Entry and mainstream graphics card prices continue to increase.
Intel Arc A770 16GB graphics card 10/12 launched, priced at $329 USD, limited edition is $349 USD.
Intel Arc A750 8GB graphics card launched 10/12, priced at $289.

The Arc A770 can have a 42% higher performance per dollar improvement than the RTX 3060, and the Arc A750 can also have a 53% higher performance per dollar lead. In other words, Arc A770 and A750 lock the price of RTX 3060 but give higher performance, which means that the Taiwan market can expect new Arc cards of around NT$10,000.

Arc A770 and A750 offer more performance per dollar than RTX 3060.

Intel Arc A770 and A750 both use Xe HPG micro-architecture. The two GPUs have similar specifications. Arc A770 will have 8GB 512Gbps and 16GB 560Gbps GDDR6 memory specifications to choose from. The GPU has 32 sets of Xe-cores, 32 sets of ray tracing units, 512 One XMX engines, the default clock is 2100MHz, and the graphics card power consumption is 225W.

The slightly entry-level Arc A750 has 28 Xe-cores, 28 ray tracing units, 448 XMX engines, a default clock of 2050MHz, a graphics card power consumption of 225W, and 8GB of 512Gbps GDDR6 memory.

Intel Arc series desktop graphics card specifications.
Intel Arc A770 graphics card specifications.
Intel Arc A750 graphics card specifications.

Both Intel Arc A770 and A750 will be launched on 10/12. In addition to Intel’s limited edition, there should also be brands launching self-made card products. As for whether the Arc performance is sufficient, and whether one card can meet the needs of games such as e-sports, AAA, and light pursuit, let us first understand the characteristics and key points of the Xe HPG micro-architecture.

Xe HPG micro-architecture is full of next-generation technologies

The Intel Xe HPG micro-architecture, codenamed Alchemist, has the ray tracing and XeSS AI acceleration technology required by the new generation of GPUs, and more fully supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan’s contemporary mainstream Low-Level API, allowing game developers and game engines to More efficient use of GPU resources.

At the same time, it provides HDMI 2.1 and DP 2.0 output functions, as well as AV1, HEVC, H.264 video codec functions and VP9 stream decoding. From the perspective of micro-architecture, function and design, Intel Arc is indeed able to keep up with the new generation of industry technology in the first-generation product design, meeting the needs of Modern GPUs.

Xe media engine supports AV1, HEVC, H.264, VP9 and other video codecs.

The Xe HPG core architecture is based on 1 set of Render Slices, with 4 sets of Xe-Core and 4 sets of Ray-Tracing units. This generation of the highest-level Arc A770 core uses 32 Xe-cores, 32 Ray-Tracing units, and 512 XMX engines composed of 8 sets of Render Slices.

Render Slices.
The complete core architecture diagram of 8 sets of Render Slices.

The 1 Xe-Core contains 16 256-bit Vector Engines, 16 1024-bit Matrix Engines, and 192KB Shared L1$/SLM memory. It can process FP+INT+XMX instructions at the same time, and has more efficient Thread Control and keeps the engine in sync.

The Xe Vector Engine has a dedicated FP execution port and a shared INT/EM execution port, which can execute instructions of 16 FP32 ops, 32 FP16 ops and 64 INT8 ops per clock cycle. In addition to having a dedicated execution port and using a 4-deep systolic array design, the XMX matrix engine can execute 128 FP16/BF16 ops, 256 INT8 ops, and 512 INT4/INT2 ops per clock cycle.

Xe-core block diagram.
Inside the Xe-core core.
Xe Vector Engine.
XMX matrix engine.

Ray Tracing and XeSS’s Modern GPU

From the core architecture design, Xe HPG, in addition to the Vector Engines required for the GPU, also has the XMX matrix engine design required for AI, and has an independent Ray-Tracing unit, which further integrates Rasterization and Ray Tracing. The hybrid rendering function.

Hybrid Rendering.

The ray tracing algorithm can also be processed by the Compute Shader of the general GPU, but it will take a lot of time, which makes it unable to meet the requirements of real-time ray tracing of the game. Therefore, each Xe-cores has a Thread Sorting Unit and Ray -Tracing unit.

The Ray-Tracing unit of Xe-cores can calculate 12 Box Intersections and 1 Triangle Intersections per cycle, and has a BVH Cache to store ray tracing data, and collect the same ray data in the same Shader through the Thread Sorting Unit implementation, which greatly improves the performance of real-time ray tracing.

Ray-Tracing Unit.
Thread Sorting Unit.

The hardware ray tracing unit designed by Arc GPU supports APIs such as DXR 1.0/1.1 and Vulkan RT, and has an asynchronous Thread Sorting Unit, and Ray Tracing Unit. Each Pipeline can execute 2 Ray Traversal, 12 Box Intersections per cycle and 1 Triangle Intersections.

Arc ray tracing unit functionality.

Real-time ray tracing can bring more realistic lighting, reflection and ambient occlusion to the game, but it also greatly increases the GPU’s computational load. At the same time, when players pursue 4K high-resolution games, the traditional GPU rendering performance cannot be overloaded. , it needs to be accelerated with the help of AI through “XeSS super-resolution” technology.

Under the same 4K rendering, with the help of XeSS, the rendering time can be greatly shortened and the performance can be improved, and the similar picture rendering can be maintained.

The game engine needs to provide: low-resolution rendering images and Motion Vectors, which are handed over to XeSS to generate high-resolution game images through AI deep learning Upscaling technology and Frame History feedback, which can improve game FPS performance and also Features such as high resolution and ray tracing are available.

In addition, in addition to Intel’s own Arc GPU support, XeSS also has a compatibility mode that supports other GPUs. In the future, there will be a variety of games to support, the first wave of “Tomb Raider: Shadow”, “Htiman 3” and “Ghost Line: Tokyo” and other games that provide XeSS technology.

XeSS feature explanation.
The XeSS Software Stack.
Games supported by XeSS.

Intel Arc A770 and A750 limited edition graphics cards out of the box

The first wave of Intel’s offering is the Arc A770 and A750 limited-edition graphics cards, which are packaged in interesting carton boxes. The carton is opened with the words Let’ Play, and the Arc graphics card box inside will be pushed out after it is fully opened. The limited edition boxed maintains the consistent Intel blue color system, with the big Arc wording, and the Arc limited edition graphics card can be seen when the outer box is opened.

Let’s Play.
Limited edition boxed.
Boxed inside.

The Intel Arc A770 and A750 limited edition graphics cards have a streamlined, rounded blackened appearance. The surface material feels like a skin-like surface. It is equipped with two 8.5cm, 15-blade fans for active cooling.

The graphics card is about 26.5cm long and occupies 2 PCIe slots (including the 4cm thickness of the backplane). The side of the graphics card has the Intel Arc luminous (white light) logo and the PCIe 8+6 pin power supply, which meets the power supply requirements of the graphics card TBP 225W.

Intel Arc A770 and A750 limited edition graphics cards.
The side of the graphics card has the luminous logo of Intel Arc and the PCIe 8+6 pin power supply.
The back panel of the graphics behind the graphics card.

The graphics card output provides 1 HDMI 2.1 and 3 DisplayPort 2.0 outputs, supporting up to 4 monitor outputs.

Graphics card output.

The limited-edition graphics card uses a copper bottom vapor chamber to contact the GPU and VRAM, and guides the heat to the heat dissipation fins through the heat pipe, which is actively dissipated by the dual fans. The graphics card also has a die-cast aluminum alloy middle frame. The middle frame is fixed to the PCIe baffle and the circuit board to improve the strength of the circuit board and then lock the radiator.

The Arc A770 uses the same ACM-G10 GPU as the A750, powered by a 6-phase VRM, with 8 GDDR6 memories surrounding the GPU.

ACM-G10 GPUs.
Die-cast aluminum alloy middle frame and radiator.
Copper bottom vapor chamber radiator, composite heat pipe and cooling fins.
4 10mm x 3mm heat pipes and fins.

The Arc A770 features RGB lighting effects included at the graphics fan, side and back panel. Players can use the Arc lighting software to switch the default lighting effects of the graphics card, and customize the mode and brightness of the RGB lighting effects.

Arc A770 lighting effects.
Arc A770 lighting effects.
Arc A770 lighting effects.
Arc lighting effect software, preset lighting mode.
Every lighting effect can be customized.

Arc Control driver update, performance monitoring overlay program

The Intel Arc graphics card driver includes the “Arc Control” software, which provides driver updates, reminders, and new information delivery, as well as function settings for games, as well as performance control and monitoring, as well as studios to provide broadcast, Quick tools for capture, focus, and more.

Arc Control uses the Overlay display. You can open Arc Control through the shortcut keys Alt + I, and Alt + O to display the monitoring information of the computer.

Using the Arc Control software displayed by the Overlay, the front page is the driver information.
You can use the shortcut keys Alt + I to open Arc Control and Alt + O to display monitoring.

Performance monitoring includes monitoring information such as CPU, RAM, GPU, VRAM, etc. voltage, clock, temperature, and usage rate, but currently there is no monitoring function related to FPS.

Whether it is in the game or operating Windows, the monitoring information can be displayed through Alt + O.

Supported items for performance monitoring.
You can also quickly monitor computer information in the game.
Computer monitoring information.

Intel Arc A770, A750 creative video output, GPU rendering performance test

This test includes creative tests such as Adobe Premiere Pro 2020, DaVinci Resolve 18 and Blender. Games are tested at 1080p and 1440p resolutions, with full special effects, to test the performance of e-sports, AAA games and light-chasing games, so that players can understand the performance of Intel Arc A770 And the A750 isn’t as tough as the briefing says.

The performance graphics cards are TUF GAMING RTX 3060 OC 12G and ROG Strix RX 6600 XT OC 8G.

Test Platform
Processor: Intel Core i9-12900K
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 PG Velocita
Memory: CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 32GBx2 5200MHz
Graphics Card: Intel Arc A770 / A750, TUF GAMING RTX 3060 OC 12G, ROG Strix RX 6600 XT OC 8G
System Disk: Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Cooler: ASUS ROG STRIX LC II 280mm
Power Supply: Seasonic PRIME PX-1000
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 21H2 64bit, Resizable BAR On
Driver Version: Intel 101.3433 / NVIDIA 517.48 / AMD 22.9.2

Intel Arc A770 GPU-Z information.
Intel Arc A750 GPU-Z information.

Adobe Premiere Pro 2022  video editing software, using the self-developed Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration, can use the GPU’s encoding engine to accelerate the image output speed. The test project 1 is the company’s 1080p60fps out-of-the-box video; the BigMix4K project uses 3 segments of FinalAdjusted_MPE 1920×1080 images to form a 4K timeline for H.264 and HEVC format output.

In terms of performance, the Arc A770 is much faster than the RTX 3060 at 4K output, but is quite close to the RTX 3060 at 1080p processing speed. As for the A750, the error encountered in this test project cannot be output smoothly, which may also be a problem related to the driver and the system. (Need to wait for Adobe and Intel updates.)

Premiere Pro 2022 video output test, the shorter the second, the better.

DaVinci Resolve 18  is a purely GPU-accelerated video editing program, including powerful color correction and special effects functions, and directly using CUDA core computing, so that the playback and output of video clips have very good performance.

The test mainly uses 4K60 H.264 AVC to convert and output to AV1 encoding; and Wedding_Heavy_Style 4K24 wedding documentary with more special effects, as well as SuperScale 4x HDsource, SuperScale 2x 4Ksource’s heavier output performance test.

Arc A770 only needs 20 seconds to complete the AV1 output, but the A750 also encounters Error in this project and cannot be executed. The rest of the graphics cards do not support AV1 encoding so cannot be tested. As for other output performance, DaVinci Resolve 18 has better performance for RTX 3060, but Arc 770 is faster than RX 6600 XT.

DaVinci Resolve 18 video output test, the shorter the second, the better.

Blender  is a cross-platform, open source 3D authoring tool that supports various 3D tasks: Modeling, Rigging, Animation, Simulation, Rendering, Compositing, and Motion Tracking. For the test, use Blender Benchmark 3.3.0 to test the rendering work of the Demo project.

In the Blender Benchmark 3.3.0 test, the Arc A770 still loses to the RTX 3060 in performance, but it still beats the RX 6600 XT.

Blender, the higher the better.

Intel Arc A770, A750 3DMark benchmark performance test

The 3DMark Fire Strike  performance test is a test scenario for the mainstream DirectX 11 API, testing the performance of 1080p, Extreme 1440p and Ultra 2160p respectively.

Judging from the total score, the Arc A770 scored 30,500 points, and the Arc A750 also had a high score of 28,358 points. It beat the RTX 3060 by a considerable amount in the running points, and also beat the comparative RX 6600 XT.

The A770 is 43% faster than the RTX 3060 in Fire Strike and 7% faster than the A750. As for the A750, it is 34% faster than the RTX 3060. If the object of comparison is the RX 6600 XT, the A770 is 16% faster and the A750 is 8% faster.

3DMark Fire Strike, the higher the score, the better.

3DMark Time Spy  is a test scenario designed with DirectX 12 API, which is also locked in AAA game level, and tests the performance of 1440p and Extreme 2160p respectively.

The gap under the DX12 API is slightly narrowed. The Arc A770 has a total score of 13,895 points, and the A750 has a score of 13,413 points, which also beats the comparative RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT.

The A770 is 49% faster than the RTX 3060 in the Time Spy project and 4% faster than the A750. As for the A750, it is 44% faster than the RTX 3060. If the object of comparison is the RX 6600 XT, the A770 is 37% faster and the A750 is 32% faster.

3DMark Time Spy, the higher the score, the better.

For the ray tracing test, 3DMark Port Royal  adds ray tracing function to the scenes in AAA games, testing the ability of the new generation GPU for hardware ray tracing acceleration. At the same time, the DXR test is a functional test using the DirectX Raytracing API.

The Arc A770 unexpectedly scored 32.04 FPS in the Port Royal test, while the A750 also managed 30.66 FPS, beating the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT.

The A770 is 37% faster than the RTX 3060 in the Port Royal project, and 5% faster than its own A750. As for the A750, it is 31% faster than the RTX 3060. If the object of comparison is the RX 6600 XT, the A770 is 54% faster and the A750 is 47% faster.

3DMark Port Royal, the higher the score, the better.

The functions of 3DMark XeSS and DLSS Feature test can compare the performance difference before and after the technology is turned on. Arc A770 has a performance of 29.17 FPS under XeSS Off, and it increases to 43.59 FPS with XeSS Ultra Quality acceleration enabled; while Arc A750 increases from 27.86 FPS to 41.87 FPS.

However, because the test scenarios are different from DLSS, direct comparisons cannot be made.

3DMark XeSS / DLSS Feature test, the higher the score, the better.

Intel Arc A770, A750 – 4 Gaming Gaming Benchmarks

4 e-sports games : “Rainbow Six: Siege”, “League of Legends”, “APEX Heroes” and “CS:GO”, etc., are all skill-heavy, team-based tactical competitive shooting, DOTA-type games, so the game When the picture quality and details are not high, the FPS of the game is also an average of more than 100 frames. Tested at 1080p, 1440p, and the highest settings for special effects.

It’s just that in terms of e-sports high FPS projects, Arc A770 and A750 seem to need some time to optimize. Only “APEX Heroes” has higher game performance, and the other three game performances all lose to the comparison objects.

Among them, “Rainbow Six: Siege” may be caused by the game update, which may have to wait for future updates to solve the problem of low test performance.

1080p gaming test, the higher the better.
1440p gaming test, higher is better.

Intel Arc A770, A750 – 12 Gaming Benchmarks

The average performance of 12 AAA games is tested with 1080p resolution and full special effects, including the entry-level “F1 2021”, “Forza Horizon 5” racing game, “Tomb Raider: Shadow”, and the movie game “Death Stranding” , “Gears of War 5”, “The Division 2”, “Horizon: Expect Dawn”, and the performance-heavy “Forbidden Land 3”, “Assassin’s Creed: Viking Age”, “Blood 2”, “God of War” , “Microsoft Flight Simulator” and other tests.

First of all, the 1080p resolution Arc A770 averaged 96 FPS in 12 games, the Arc A750 88 FPS, and the RTX 3060 averaged 91 FPS. However, at this resolution, the RX 6600 XT won the championship with an average of 101 FPS.

From this performance point of view, Arc A770 and A750 can meet the performance requirements of 1080p and AAA games. Even the masterpieces that consume resources have a very good performance, but “Microsoft Flight Simulator” still makes A750 feel a little too difficult.

1080p AAA gaming test, higher is better.

At 1440p resolution, the Arc A770 achieved an average of 73 FPS for 12 games, and the Arc A750 averaged 67 FPS. This test not only beat the RTX 3060 with an average of 67 FPS, but also beat the RX 6600 XT with an average of 71 FPS.

Arc A770 can provide good 2K game performance, and even games with heavy performance can maintain an average of more than 60 FPS, but “Microsoft Flight Simulator” is relatively difficult. Although the A750 is above 60 FPS on average, the performance of “God of War” and “Assassin’s Creed: Viking Age” is lower.

1440p AAA gaming test, higher is better.

Intel Arc A770, A750 – 8 light-chasing game tests

For the 8 light-chasing DXR game tests, the most popular “Electric Riders 2077”, “Ghost Line: Tokyo”, “Marvel Interstellar”, “Htiman 3”, “Polar War Cry 6”, “Htiman 3” are used. Games such as Evil Castle Village and Tomb Raider: Shadow were tested. Test the resolution of 1080p and 1440p. In addition to the maximum settings of special effects and light tracking, functions such as DLSS / FSR / XeSS will also be enabled. For detailed settings, please refer to the chart description.

The light pursuit masterpiece “Electric Rebel 2077” only averages 57.3 FPS when Arc A770 can only use FSR acceleration, compared to an average of 66.8 FPS under RTX 3060 DLSS acceleration, compared to games that rely heavily on light pursuit performance, this part Still the RTX 3060 is stronger. But “Ghost Line: Tokyo” can be tied Arc A770 97.9 FPS, RTX 3060 98.8 FPS.

From the average of 8 games, the Arc A770 averages 94 FPS, the A750 averages 81 FPS, and the RTX 3060 averages 95 FPS. In terms of visible light tracking performance, NVIDIA is still strong, but the performance of the Arc A770 directly beats the RX 6600 XT (77 FPS average).

1080p DXR gaming test, higher is better.

After the ray tracing resolution was increased to 1440p, although the RTX 3060 could not meet the performance of “Electric Rider 2077”, it still slightly outperformed the Arc A770 and A750. For other games, in addition to the Arc A750’s low performance in “Marvel Interstellar”, the A770 is also capable of 1440p light chasing game cards.

From the average of 8 games, the Arc A770 averages 74 FPS, the A750 averages 63 FPS, and the RTX 3060 averages 71 FPS.

1440p DXR gaming test, higher is better.

Intel Arc A770, A750 Power Consumption and Temperature Measurements

The power consumption and temperature test of the graphics card, using the Time Spy Stress test and “Electric Rider 2077” to test. The power consumption is measured using the PACT tool provided by NVIDIA, which can monitor the wattage provided by the PCIe slot and the power supply 12V.

In terms of graphics card temperature, the Arc A770 maintains a maximum temperature of 74°C in the stress test, and the A750 is 70°C. As for the 2077 game, the temperature will be slightly lower, but the other two compared are self-made cards, so it is normal for the temperature to be lower. condition.

GPU temperature test.

In the TBP power consumption test of the graphics card, in the Time Spy Stress test, the Arc A770 and A750 achieved an average power consumption of 227W, but in the 2077 game, the A770 190W and A750 164W. However, the power consumption of Arc is indeed higher in this comparison. Although the performance is better than that of the RTX 3060, it also pays more power to achieve it.

Graphics card TBP power consumption test.

Summarize

This may be the game GPU three-point world that players are happy to see. The Intel Arc A770 and A750 did perform well. The Arc A770 averaged 73.9 FPS for AAA games at 1440p resolution and 74.4 FPS for DXR games, while Arc A750 is more suitable as an entry-level game card at 1080p resolution.

In this test, the Arc A770 and A750 are mainly compared with the RTX 3060. If the RTX 3060 is used as the benchmark, the Arc A770 has a performance lead of 6% and 9% in AAA games, while the A750 is a small loss. DXR games are similarly insignificant.

In terms of light-chasing games, Arc A770 and A750 do have the ability to fight against RTX 3060, and even light-chasing directly overtakes AMD’s performance, but now the support of light-chasing games is related to the popularity of XeSS. Where it needs to be sacrificed, I also expect more and more major games to support Intel Arc graphics cards at the first time.

The average overall score for game performance, based on RTX 3060.

However, the Xe HPG architecture of Intel Arc A770 and A750 is really low in performance for old games with old APIs. It also takes time for Intel to continue to optimize. Similarly, when XeSS technology has just been launched, it also takes time for game development. In this way, players can get the most complete new generation GPU game performance.

In terms of US dollar MSRP pricing, Arc A770 and RTX 3060 are actually cost-effective. In other words, as long as the price of Arc A770 in Taiwan is about 10,000 yuan as the RTX 3060 currently sold, the price of A750 is NT$9. At a price within a thousand yuan, this can really make players tempted.

Intel Arc A770 A750

In a word, Intel Arc A770 and A750 will go on sale at 3:00 pm Taiwan time on October 12th. As long as the price in Taiwan is reasonable or even better, then the release of this wave of Arc can be said to be a success, but it is more difficult to drive it in the future. Maintenance, game optimization, and enabling more games to use XeSS acceleration and ray tracing support, this is the mission that the original Arc needs to achieve, so that the next generation can expect Intel to launch a 4K-level graphics card.

The three major players scramble for the entry-level, mainstream cost-effective game graphics card market, so that players have better choices, and manufacturers can really launch products that meet players’ expectations and budgets.

Business hours: Taiwan will start the “Intel Arc Pop-up Store” event in the indoor exhibition area on the 1F of Guanghua Shopping Center on 10/21. Players who are interested in Arc should also come and experience it.

10/28 The upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II 2022 will support Arc’s XeSS and ray tracing capabilities.

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Title: Intel Arc A770 and A750 Gaming Graphics Card Test Review/ Report / Challenge 2K Best Value for Money

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