Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing

AMD takes a swing at Intel with claims of beating Arc GPUs

Monica J. White
By

Intel hasn’t provided comparisons between its new discrete Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs and the competition, so AMD took it upon itself to fill in the missing information.

AMD compared the Intel A370M GPU to its own RX 6500M. The results were not great for Intel.

AMD comparison chart for the RX 6500M and the Intel Arc A370M.
AMD

Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards have only just been released, so there isn’t much in the way of benchmarks for users to check out before choosing to buy a laptop with those GPUs. Intel has provided some comparisons to give an idea of the performance of the A370M and A350M, but it mostly compared the GPUs to its own Iris Xe integrated graphics cards. Such a comparison is almost certain to prove favorable for Intel Arc, so it does little in terms of giving customers an idea of what exactly they can expect.

Recommended Videos

With only Intel benchmarks to go by, all we could do to gauge the performance of thev A370M was to speculate based on its specs. The company did not send out samples of the product to reviewers ahead of time either. As such, until the first actual users receive their Intel Arc products, we wouldn’t have known much … if not for AMD.

Related

AMD decided to compare its Radeon RX 6500M laptop graphics card to Intel’s A370M, which happens to be the top chip Intel currently offers. The GPUs feature a very similar set of specs, so it’s not outlandish to compare these two models.

AMD and Intel each have 4GB of GDDR6 memory and the same power requirements, with a TDP range of 35 watts to 50 watts. The Intel Arc 370M has 8 Xe-cores, which is the equivalent of 1,024 FP32 cores, and AMD’s Navi 24 XM GPU has 16 compute units, adding up to the same. Both chips are produced on TSMC’s N6 process node. There’s a difference in transistor count, but it’s in Intel’s favor: It comes with 7.2 billion transistors versus AMD’s 5.4 billion.

On paper, these are similar units and should deliver comparable performance. According to AMD’s findings, that’s not quite what we’re getting.

Intel's graph on Arc Alchemist gaming performance.
Intel

AMD tested the cards at 1080p resolution and on medium settings with the aim to hit at least 80 frames per second (fps). The games used for this test were Hitman 3, Total War Saga: Troy, F1 2021, Strange Brigade (this one was played on high settings), and Final Fantasy XIV. As seen on the top graph, AMD wins in each one of those tests, with Intel not breaking past 71 fps at any point.

This is a tough blow for Intel. Some of the games revealed a massive gap between the two GPUs. For example, in F1 2021, AMD managed to hit 135 fps while Intel trailed far behind at just 63. Intel’s highest score of 71 comes from Final Fantasy XIV, where AMD maintained 99 frames per second.

As VideoCardz points out, Intel initially claimed to be able to deliver 90 fps in 1080p gaming. However, the games used for that graph were entirely different titles than what AMD has used for this comparison. AMD has most likely chosen titles that were optimized for its GPUs in order to test the RX 6500M and compare it to the A370M. The same can probably be said for Intel.

While this is an official benchmark, it’s difficult to fully trust tests that come from Intel’s direct competitor. An independent benchmark leaked on Twitter yesterday, showing the performance of the A350M GPU. It landed in a similar ballpark to Nvidia’s somewhat dated GTX 1650 graphics card. We’ll have to wait for more users to get their hands on Intel Arc before we can get benchmarks that are 100% unbiased.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
AMD’s two new GPUs significantly undercut Nvidia
AMD's Scott Herkalman presenting the RX 7800 XT graphics card.

AMD has just unveiled two new graphics cards aimed at gamers -- the Radeon RX 7800 XT and the RX 7700 XT. Set to rival some of the best graphics cards in this generation, the two GPUs are a way to bridge the gap in AMD's modest RDNA 3 lineup. AMD teases that both cards are suited for 1440p gaming, which could help them compete in the mainstream gaming market.

The prices are what stand out: the RX 7800 XT starts at $500, while the RX 7700 XT goes for $450. That significantly undercuts Nvidia's RTX 4070 at $600, though the RX 7700 XT is more expensive than the RTX 4060 Ti at $450.  Nvidia could really use some competition, so let's hope that AMD's new GPUs will be powerful enough to make a dent in Nvidia's market domination.

Read more
Intel’s latest update improves gaming performance by up to 77%
The backs of the Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards.

Intel has just made a slew of exciting announcements regarding to its Arc Alchemist GPUs, which are some of the best graphics cards for a more budget-oriented build. Since the launch of its flagship GPU, the Arc A770,  Intel has been hard at work releasing frequent fixes to optimize the performance. Now, over 30 driver updates later, Intel is talking about the boost in games its GPUs have received. It's also ushering in a brand-new open-source tool.

Upon the launch of Intel's discrete graphics cards, it was clear that while Arc GPUs were solid in DirectX 12 games, they lagged behind in titles that use DirectX 11 and DirectX 9. Now, Intel claims that the latest Arc drivers bring major improvements in that regard. It showed its own benchmarks in various games to prove that things are different now, all based on testing with an Arc A750 GPU.

Read more
Intel’s forgotten Arc GPU might still have some life
Intel Arc A770 graphics card.

Intel's most stealthy GPU appeared in yet another round of leaked benchmarks. The Intel Arc A580 was tested in OpenCL on Geekbench, and its score pits it against AMD's RX 7600. But does that really mean that it'll be on par with one of AMD's best graphics cards in this generation?

Although most of us have heard of the Arc A770 and the Arc A750, and even the entry-level Arc A380, the Arc A580 remains a bit of a myth. Announced well over a year ago, the GPU has been spotted in benchmarks every so often, but Intel hasn't released it to the market just yet. It's hard to say what the reason is behind this delay, as the specs of the card have been known for a long time.

Read more