Intel Arc - your honest thought about them?

xanthrou · Post by **xanthrou** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 7:51 am

Not going to lie, finally there will be a third GPU player. While I am excited to see Arc on stores and they seem well-constructed, drivers are very badly executed. (Though Nvidia and ATI/AMD weren't on a much stable ground when they first make GPUs too.)

kelli217 · Post by **kelli217** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 2:35 pm

I haven't read anything about it. Is it based on the onboard graphics systems they've been selling for ages, or is it a new GPU architecture?

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Tue Sep 20, 2022 6:10 pm

The GPU space needs competition, and Intel one of the few companies more than capable of being a serious contender verses AMD and Nvidia.

The Nvidia side of the GPU market just got a bit of a shake up with EVGA, probably the largest of Nvidia's board partners, announcing they will no longer partner with Nvidia, and are leaving the GPU space all together it would seem, at least for now. EVGA cited many of Nvidia's highly questionable treatment of their board partners and anti-consumer practices, claims supported by most industry insiders and other board partners.

Now would be a good time for Intel Arc to really push ahead while the rush is on to fill the void left by EVGA on Nvidia's side of the fence.

In an nutshell, I will always support competition in the market. It forces innovation and helps keep prices in check, and both of those things are excellent for the consumer.

xanthrou · Post by **xanthrou** » Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:41 pm

On 9/20/2022 at 5:35 PM, kelli217 said:

I haven't read anything about it. Is it based on the onboard graphics systems they've been selling for ages, or is it a new GPU architecture?

New one.

xanthrou · Post by **xanthrou** » Wed Sep 21, 2022 5:47 pm

On 9/20/2022 at 9:10 PM, Strider said:

The GPU space needs competition, and Intel one of the few companies more than capable of being a serious contender verses AMD and Nvidia.

The Nvidia side of the GPU market just got a bit of a shake up with EVGA, probably the largest of Nvidia's board partners, announcing they will no longer partner with Nvidia, and are leaving the GPU space all together it would seem, at least for now. EVGA cited many of Nvidia's highly questionable treatment of their board partners and anti-consumer practices, claims supported by most industry insiders and other board partners.

Now would be a good time for Intel Arc to really push ahead while the rush is on to fill the void left by EVGA on Nvidia's side of the fence.

In an nutshell, I will always support competition in the market. It forces innovation and helps keep prices in check, and both of those things are excellent for the consumer.

I agree. I love Intel's design and I really hope they succeed. However, the drivers are terrible, Intel needn't and shouldn't rushed them. ?

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:00 pm

On 9/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, xanthrou said:

I agree. I love Intel's design and I really hope they succeed. However, the drivers are terrible, Intel needn't and shouldn't rushed them. ?

Unfortunately, drivers are often slow to "mature", even Nvidia and AMD take a while to get their drivers in order with generational releases, and even more so with architectural updates. I have a feeling Intel Arc's completely new Xe HPG architecture means it's going to take a while to get good drivers. At least AMD and Nvidia have something to build upon, Intel is doing this from the ground up.

xanthrou · Post by **xanthrou** » Tue Jan 03, 2023 6:58 am

On 9/22/2022 at 10:00 PM, Strider said:

Unfortunately, drivers are often slow to "mature", even Nvidia and AMD take a while to get their drivers in order with generational releases, and even more so with architectural updates. I have a feeling Intel Arc's completely new Xe HPG architecture means it's going to take a while to get good drivers. At least AMD and Nvidia have something to build upon, Intel is doing this from the ground up.

Well, drivers for the DirectX 9, 10 and eleven games got a significant improvement.

neutrino · Post by **neutrino** » Wed Jan 04, 2023 12:34 pm

It's a good thing to have more competition. Especially considering Nvidia aggressive secrecy on how to interface with their cards, and their pricing. Just don't forget Intel have their own dirty underbelly. Most larger corporations have.

With time their hardware and drivers are likely to improve. So in the end one got to look at the compatibility and pricing. Also factor in that the manufactured chip crisis seems to end sometime before the summer of 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARPoz_GhVjY - Dawid Does Tech Stuff: I lived with an Intel Arc GPU for a month... (2022-12-21)

Dr Coonan (2022-december): "Intel's drivers work more like firmware. Once installed, you cannot install an older version as it updates the card's firmware with each update. I'm not sure if they will change this."

Ie downgrades will be a pain in the A**.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 4:42 am

I gotta be honest... I'm kinda rooting for Intel on this.

It's like rooting for Cad Bane because "Well, at least he's not Count Dooku."

There are just no heroes in this fight. Except, of course, for INDEPENDENT DEVELOPERS making simple games that don't need a freakin' 400 watt GPU to run properly! And to be fair... the only people that think games even NEED the "Big GPUs" are dopamine addicts that are gunna get us all wacked when AI takes over the world with the very technology they begged for.

JUST STAHHPPP!

Commander X16