Intel Arc Graphics A750/A770 Performance Ahead Of Linux 6.2 + Mesa 23.0

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Arc Graphics A750/A770 Performance Ahead Of Linux 6.2 + Mesa 23.0

Last month when the Intel Arc Graphics A750 and A770 reached retail availability, there was open-source support available for Linux users assuming you were on a new enough kernel and Mesa release plus having to activate the preliminary/experimental hardware support flag. In the time since the open-source Intel dGPU Linux graphics driver support has continued to mature and with the upcoming Linux 6.2 kernel is where DG2/Alchemist graphics have been promoted to stable / supported out-of-the-box. Given this milestone and the upstream Mesa code for the Intel ANV Vulkan and Iris Gallium3D drivers continuing to mature, here are some fresh benchmarks of the Intel Arc Graphics A750/A770 under Linux.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-arc-nov

[ezst036]

Having taken so long to get to market (because of the drivers), these are just not going to be able to compete in a meaningful way to Geforce 4xxx and Radeon 7xxx in gaming.

Michael, could you run some tests using OBS Studio and Intel Arc?

The real shining item of these cards should be the built in AV1. To be able to get some AV1 at a stellar price will be something that people will take an interest in, and it would be good to know in depth the Linux situation here in Open Broadcaster.

[skeevy420]

Having taken so long to get to market (because of the drivers), these are just not going to be able to compete in a meaningful way to Geforce 4xxx and Radeon 7xxx in gaming.

Well, if the A770 ever does get better it currently competes with the 6700 XT in regards to price, only with 4 more GB of VRAM. I assume that the Arcs will get better drivers, much like AMD GPUs tend to get, so I think that it'll be very interesting to see these tests repeated quarterly or biyearly to see which one is the better long-term current purchase.

If the new GeForce and Radeons are as good as they're rumored to be then I doubt the Arcs will ever compete with them dollar for dollar since the A770 is currently priced to compete with an on-sale 6700 XT and performs like an overpriced 6600 XT...unless their drivers are just "THAT" unoptimized and they have "THAT" much potential waiting to come out.

[Hibbelharry]

It seems AV1 encoding isn't working out until now, even on Windows....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfv6xX0kLLY

[Quackdoc]

Vulkan and AV1 are where these cards shine, I currently have an a380 for now, and it's been actually pretty decent so far. im impressed, I dont do much in the way of gaming, but aside from dri prime usage, the card has been mostly solid, av1 encode is nice too ofc

[Volta]

Cyberpunk 2077 with Steam Play in general is running well enough too that I am finally confident in using it for future Linux graphics tests. Though with the Mesa version tested, the Radeon graphics with RADV were encountering the game hung on load.

Fixed in 6.1-rc7.

[stormcrow]

Well, if the A770 ever does get better it currently competes with the 6700 XT in regards to price, only with 4 more GB of VRAM. I assume that the Arcs will get better drivers, much like AMD GPUs tend to get, so I think that it'll be very interesting to see these tests repeated quarterly or biyearly to see which one is the better long-term current purchase.

If the new GeForce and Radeons are as good as they're rumored to be then I doubt the Arcs will ever compete with them dollar for dollar since the A770 is currently priced to compete with an on-sale 6700 XT and performs like an overpriced 6600 XT...unless their drivers are just "THAT" unoptimized and they have "THAT" much potential waiting to come out.

If you're strictly going on price/performance and not "New Shiny!" then there's no reason to buy any of the Intel A series. You can buy an AMD RX 6650XT that outperforms the Intel A while spending less if you're careful and shop around on the price. Plus you get more stable drivers and support software to boot. Intel isn't quite in the spot they were in when they tried to release usable discrete GPU product last time (at least they actually released it this time), but they aren't doing much better performance/price/experience than the first attempt in the 1990s with a nacent market. Back in the late 90s the GPU market was wide open, now they have established, well performing competitors in a market that doesn't reward "almost".

[skeevy420]

If you're strictly going on price/performance and not "New Shiny!" then there's no reason to buy any of the Intel A series. You can buy an AMD RX 6650XT that outperforms the Intel A while spending less if you're careful and shop around on the price. Plus you get more stable drivers and support software to boot. Intel isn't quite in the spot they were in when they tried to release usable discrete GPU product last time (at least they actually released it this time), but they aren't doing much better performance/price/experience than the first attempt in the 1990s with a nacent market. Back in the late 90s the GPU market was wide open, now they have established, well performing competitors in a market that doesn't reward "almost".

I totally agree, but as a Linux and FOSS user that's used to delayed gratification, it still begs to question how things will be in the future from an optimistic perspective. I remember a time not that long ago where AMD was in the exact same boat and it could take a year or longer for the driver to mature enough to be called fully usable on Linux (and sometimes even Windows). Anecdotally, it wasn't until the RX 580 came out that the RX 480, Polaris in general, was fully mature on Linux and people on forums started complaining about it less and less.

AMDGPU hasn't been known for rocking our socks off on day one but it is known for aging nicely like wine and cheese. Assuming Intel gives the Arcs the top notch Linux support they're known for giving, I expect them to age nicely as well. That's why even though the market doesn't reward almost, Linux and FOSS users sometimes will.

It sucks that they don't make more 8GB 6500 XTs. That'd be a great card for a budget gamer since it'd have the performance of an RX 580 with 33% less power usage.

[Jahimself]

Thanks a lot Michael for this updated benchmark. You also included new games in the bench which is great. This must have been a lot of work!

[stormcrow]

I totally agree, but as a Linux and FOSS user that's used to delayed gratification, it still begs to question how things will be in the future from an optimistic perspective. I remember a time not that long ago where AMD was in the exact same boat and it could take a year or longer for the driver to mature enough to be called fully usable on Linux (and sometimes even Windows). Anecdotally, it wasn't until the RX 580 came out that the RX 480, Polaris in general, was fully mature on Linux and people on forums started complaining about it less and less.

AMDGPU hasn't been known for rocking our socks off on day one but it is known for aging nicely like wine and cheese. Assuming Intel gives the Arcs the top notch Linux support they're known for giving, I expect them to age nicely as well. That's why even though the market doesn't reward almost, Linux and FOSS users sometimes will.

It sucks that they don't make more 8GB 6500 XTs. That'd be a great card for a budget gamer since it'd have the performance of an RX 580 with 33% less power usage.

Those are all good points to consider. The problem is while AMD does indeed make their drivers better given time, Intel has not been known to do so historically. That's my main reservation with anything Intel processor related. Unless it's a server grade part, they aren't very interested in the same level of support as their competition - they're pretty hit or miss arguably even in Windows.