Intel announced its return to the independent graphics card market at the end of 2022, and launched two products, Arc A770 and Arc A750. However, due to architectural design factors in the initial stage of listing, the performance for old-generation API games is relatively unsatisfactory, but many popular e-sports games are Use these old-generation APIs; after several months of continuous enhancement of the driver, Intel finally cut off the driver architecture in 2023 and launched a new version that greatly improves the compatibility of the old-generation APIs. This time Intel also provides the current market price that has fallen behind the new The Arc A750 official belief version near NT$7,000 is available for evaluation.
▲The media evaluation gave a carton with a hidden mystery, but it should not be the appearance that consumers get
▲No, it’s so cool inside a tattered cardboard box
▲The official box of Arc A750 will float up when the left and right are opened…
▲It is a note, Intel added a note in the carton that can support the box
Arc A750 is a product of the first-generation Alchemist architecture under the Intel Xe HPG project. It mainly targets mid-level and mainstream gaming entertainment needs. It is positioned for a smooth experience with full 1080P special effects. The chip is produced by TSMC’s 6nm process; Arc A750 has 28 A set of Xe-Core / ray tracing engine and 488 XMX engines, in addition to supporting advanced AV1 codec, the clock frequency is set at 2,050MHz, equipped with 8GB GDDR6 memory, and provides 3 sets of DisplayPort 2.0, a set of HDMI 2.1, only The only embarrassing thing is that it needs to use 6+8 Pin power supply and a TDP of 225W.
▲ The official box of Arc A750
▲Simple fan cover design
Although Intel used to be a supplier of independent graphics cards, after all, it was nearly 30 years ago. It will take time to re-establish a relationship with the board brand. Therefore, the only Arc A750 that can be directly obtained in the Taiwan retail market is this Intel official Version; The Arc A750 card is about 28.5 cm long, with a double-slot design, and the shape of the fan cover is similar to that of the Arc A750, except that the original RGB light strip on the outer ring is changed to a chrome strip, but the Intel Arc lettering that emits white light is retained.
▲The place near the fan has a three-dimensional shape like a crater
▲Modeling back panel
▲ PCIe Gen 4 lanes
▲Mainstream 1 HDMI + 3 DP
In terms of system combination, although I have an i9-13900K in my hand, I think that in addition to the performance, consumers who consider this price may also be equipped with a mainstream processor. I don’t have any that fully meets the requirements. processor and motherboard, so it is combined with i5-13600K, MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI, Kingston DDR5 5600 16GB x 2 as a combination, but I think a more pragmatic combination should be with i5-13500, B760 chips (even cheaper B760 chips) DDR4 motherboards are more suitable.
▲ Arc’s management interface also has a game optimization function
The driver I used this time is Intel Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4091, which is a version with a major overhaul of the driver architecture. However, what I find troublesome is that Intel and Microsoft have not negotiated software permissions or other issues. Every time you restart the computer, you will be asked to confirm the permission. Even if it is not the Arc A750 but the Intel internal display driver, the same phenomenon occurs; However, it does not have the game section image, so it can only be captured using the screenshot function of each game service portal.
▲Basic Performance Test
The author has conducted actual tests with a variety of games and test software, and the actual performance is quite good. Most of the titles can achieve extreme fluency in FullHD, especially if the new API games can be matched with Intel XeSS or AMD FSR, they can run at 1440p with medium to high special effects It has the performance around 60P, but it is more disadvantageous when encountering some games that use old-style APIs, such as FireWire Hunting and Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA 4). It is not clear whether it is a driver problem or a UBI fault.
▲ Performance test of Final Fantasy
▲ Performance test of Returnal
▲ 2077 performance test
▲Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Test
▲ Dirt test
▲ F1 2021 test
▲ F1 2022 test
▲ FireWire hunting test
▲ Tomb Raider: Shadow Test
▲ Wolfenstein: Blood Qi Fang just tested
▲ GTA 4’s 1440p resolution in DX10 is still excellent with full frame rate
▲ GTA 4 is changed to DX11 and full surface subdivision and anti-aliasing will appear less than 30fps “movie feel”
In addition, you can also see that although Grand Theft Auto is a game many years ago, after turning on all the special effects, it can still squeeze out the performance of the new generation of mid-level graphics cards and processors. When I turn on DX11 and include tessellation, When anti-aliasing and other effects are fully turned on, the average frame rate is only from movie-level 24P, but there is a significant drop compared to DX10 over 100fps. It is fully open, but it can also be felt that the recent AI enhancement technologies such as XeSS can indeed improve the smoothness of the game more efficiently.
▲Adopt 8+6 Pin, TDP 225W
According to the test results, most scenarios are similar to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, but the price is even lower than GeForce RTX 3050, except that it needs to use 8+6 Pins for power supply, while NVIDIA only needs a single 8 Pins even for GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, However, the author thinks that it should not be a big problem for consumers. Taking the price-oriented combination of the author as an example, i5-13500, B760 chip, dual-channel memory, SSD, etc., the estimated power consumption of the whole machine is still controlled within 450W. A 650W power supply with guaranteed quality is about 2000 yuan, which is still within a reasonable range.
▲Light of Faith
For consumers, the biggest threshold for evaluating whether to buy Intel Arc A750 is probably a psychological barrier that cannot be crossed. Just like when many hardware communities saw AMD launch the new Radeon, many people jumped out and said that it is a must-buy for great value. However, judging from the consumer activity of Steam, the activity of these so-called leapfrog killer products has not really caught up with the original imaginary enemy. Consumers’ stereotypes, and whether Intel, as a large newcomer in the market, can provide good logistics will also be a matter of consumers.
▲ Save 2,000 for a gamble, and the extra budget can be used to upgrade the SSD capacity or upgrade the processor level
However, products that are relatively close to performance have a lower retail price, and for budget-oriented players, they can also allocate their limited budget to other components, such as upgrading the processor, or purchasing an SSD with a larger capacity, etc. According to the author Computing systems using well-known online shopping platforms, including i5-13400 processors, B660 DDR4 memory motherboards, 16GB x2 DDR4 memory, 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, about 2,000 yuan main case, 650W semi-module gold medal power supply, etc. It can be controlled within NT$28,000, but the performance is enough to smoothly execute AAA masterpieces with medium and high special effects in FullHD.