by Intel has shared a new set of benchmarks for its Arc A7 series discrete mobile GPUs, testing seventeen different games at 1080p on the A770M and A730M cards and comparing them to Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and RTX 3050 Max-Q laptop variants. you respectively.
These results seem to show that Intel Arc GPUs outperform RTX cards by a moderate amount, with about a 12% performance increase on average for both Arc cards compared to their Nvidia counterparts. The A770M beat the RTX 3060 in 14 out of 17 games tested, while the A730M beat the RTX 3050 Ti in 12. The biggest individual difference was in Control, where the A730M beat the 3050 Ti by nearly 50%.
However, benchmark figures provided by a manufacturer should always be viewed with a grain of salt, as Intel obviously wants to generate interest in these new GPUs. We still have no way of verifying these results ourselves, as Arc A7 GPUs are currently only available in a small number of laptops sold in mainland china. The Arc laptops tested by Intel are pre-production models, while the Nvidia laptops are existing units from MSI and Asus.
While Intel may seem to have a slight advantage here in performance, it should be noted that Nvidia’s Max-Q cards are still the most power efficient option. Intel didn’t provide the exact operating TGPs for the Arc cards, but we do know that the Arc A730M runs at least 20W more than the 3050 Ti Max-Q, and the A770M tested could be using up to 65W more than the 3060 Max-q.
Review: Should we really get excited about the Arc A7?
Overall, I’m a bit worried about these numbers, even if Intel wants to frame them as a clear win for Arc. Once I took a closer look at the laptops that Intel used for the testing process, I became even more concerned.
The pre-production laptops used for Arc testing were equipped with the latest 12th Gen Alder Lake Intel processors and ultra-fast DDR5 RAM, while the RTX 3060 and 3050 Ti gaming laptops both used less powerful 11th generation chips and DDR4 memory.
This makes the comparison a bit unfair, frankly. The A770M laptop is a particularly atrocious choice compared to the MSI Pulse GL66 which Intel used as it has a powerful Core i9-12900HK CPU compared to the GL66’s i7-11800H. The RTX 3060 and 3050 Ti GPUs tested are also not the highest powered models available for laptops.
Obviously the GPU will still be the main factor in gaming performance here, but these comparisons don’t seem particularly fair. I’d really like to see a more precise matchup using matching processors and memory, as I strongly suspect the 12% margin could be a batch smaller in reality.
With the Arc series already worried about delays thanks to driver issues and Covid lockouts, and initial impressions of the Desktop Arc A3 Discrete GPUs doesn’t look too good, Intel might be worried right now. If the Arc A7 laptop cards can barely beat Nvidia’s current top competitors, what hope does Intel have once the Lovelace laptop GPUs arrive?
While the desktop RTX 4060 isn’t currently expected to arrive alongside the first burst of RTX 40-series GPUs, laptop OEMs probably won’t have to wait too long for them. Price obviously remains the big question here; if Intel can significantly undercut Nvidia, they could still secure a position as the top choice for affordable 1080p gaming. But for now, I’m afraid the outlook is bleak for Intel’s long-awaited return to the GPU market.
Of tom hardware.
