Skip to main content

Intel Arc Alchemist may let you overclock virtually for free

Intel Arc Alchemist graphics cards continue to surprise us in many ways prior to their actual release. This time, a new teaser from an interview with Intel fellow Tom Petersen reveals some more information about the GPUs, including their overclocking capabilities.

According to Petersen, Intel Arc might be unexpectedly good at overclocking and striking the right balance between performance and power consumption — so much so that a massive overclock was achieved at almost no extra energy cost.

Intel Arc Graphics: Ask Us Anything With Tom TAP Petersen!

Despite the various shortcomings of Intel Arc, be it the delays or the fact that the GPUs are chiefly optimized for DirectX 12 and Vulkan only, the promotion and communication have definitely been on point lately, and Intel has been transparent about the performance of these graphics cards. To that end, Tom Petersen joined a Q&A session with HotHardware and answered many questions about Intel Arc.

The card’s overclocking powers were briefly discussed and the Arc A770 certainly managed to impress. The GPU went through some overclocking and undervolting in order to measure its performance in Hitman 3. The GPU’s regular clock speed maxes out at 2.1GHz, but this time, it was overclocked to 2.7GHz. That’s a noteworthy overclock that would certainly impact the performance.

Perhaps the more interesting fact is that during the 2.7GHz overclock, the card’s power consumption reached 228 watts, which is just 3 watts more than its regular maximum TBP. This proves that through a good combination of overclocking and undervolting, Intel Arc can deliver good results.

Intel Arc A770 and A750 specification sheet.
Intel/HotHardware

Intel has also shared new slides about the Arc Alchemist graphics cards, namely the Limited Edition versions, which are Intel’s own design. The Arc A770 and Arc A750 both house the same ACM-G10 GPU, but the A770 has the full 32 Xe-Cores and 16GB of memory, although it can also come in an 8GB flavor. Despite that, both graphics cards have the same 225-watt TBP.

The middle-of-the-pack Arc A580 comes with 24 Xe-Cores and 8GB of memory; Petersen has now also confirmed that it will have a TBP of 175 watts. We don’t know much about the Arc A310 and the Arc A350, both rumored to be part of the lineup. The Arc A380 has already seen a limited release, so perhaps a global launch will soon follow alongside the better models.

Petersen addressed many questions, but he was still not ready to talk about a possible release date of Intel Arc. It’s possible that Intel might mention them during its Intel Innovation event on September 27, although that would give the GPUs very little chance to shine — the company is also set to reveal Raptor Lake CPUs on that date, and AMD will be launching its Ryzen 7000 processors.

Editors' Recommendations

Monica J. White
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
Here’s how Intel doubled Arc GPUs’ performance with a simple driver update
intel arc alchemist driver update doubled performance a770 logo respec featured

As newcomers in the world of discrete graphics cards, the best hope for Intel's Arc A770 and A750 was that they wouldn't be terrible. And Intel mostly delivered in raw power, but the two budget-focused GPUs have been lagging in the software department. Over the course of the last few months, Intel has corrected course.

Through a series of driver updates, Intel has delivered close to double the performance in DirectX 9 titles compared to launch, as well as steep upgrades in certain DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games. I caught up with Intel's Tom Petersen and Omar Faiz to find out how Intel was able to rearchitect its drivers, and more importantly, how it's continuing to drive software revisions in the future.
The driver of your games

Read more
Intel targets RTX 3060 takedown with Arc Alchemist price cut
Two intel Arc graphics cards on a pink background.

Intel is cutting the price of its Arc A750 graphics card in an attempt to strike at Nvidia's popular RTX 3060. Starting today, the Arc A750 starts at $250 for Intel's Limited Edition model.

As you can read in our Intel Arc A770 and A750 review, the card narrowly beats the RTX 3060 at 1080p, while carving out a more significant lead at 1440p. The price cut brings a $40 reduction in the price the A750 debuted out, tipping the value scales in Intel's favor.

Read more
Intel just gave your Arc GPU double the frames-per-second performance
Intel Arc A750M Limited Edition graphics card sits on a desk.

It’s no secret that Intel’s Arc graphics cards had a rough launch, with multiple delays and even cancellation rumors plaguing Intel’s efforts. But now the company finally has some good news: its latest drivers could more than double Arc performance in certain situations.

In a recent blog post, Intel explains that its latest driver (version v3959) can improve 99th percentile DirectX 9 frames per second (fps) by up to 2.3 times. Compared to the previous driver, average fps is increased by up to 1.8 times. Those are some major boosts if you play a lot of DirectX 9 games.

Read more