Intel’s high-end GPU Arc A730M is hardly faster than an NVIDIA RTX 3050 when gaming, and BETA drivers also don’t start some games in DX12

Yesterday we saw the first performance benchmarks of Intel’s Arc A730M GPU, which showed comparable performance to an NVIDIA RTX 3070. However, when it comes to actual gaming results, the performance hardly seems to be faster than the RTX 3050.

Intel’s high-end Arc A730M can hardly catch up with NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 in games, gaming performance slightly better than an RTX 3050

Intel Graphics’ software division was known to lag far behind the team that develops the actual hardware. The hardware team has been rolling out GPUs since last year, but the software team has yet to release a driver fully tuned to unlock Arc’s true potential.

The 12 GB Intel Arc A730M mobile GPU is faster than NVIDIA’s RTX 3070 Mobility in the official 3DMark performance benchmarks

This is noticeable in the latest benchmarks posted to Weibo by the same source that previously posted the synthetic benchmarks. The synthetic gaming benchmarks showed Intel’s Arc A730M sitting close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070M, outperforming in DirectX 12 and lagging a bit in DirectX 11 tests, but when it comes to gaming, the Arc A730M struggles, even some games like Shadow of The Tomb execute robber. The GPU ran at a 92W TDP, which is within its 80-120W range, and at clock speeds of up to 2050MHz.

The source published various gaming benchmarks of Intel’s Arc A730M GPU in titles like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Metro Exodus and F1 2020. The user also tried to run Shadow of The Tomb Raider but the game won’t even launch in DirectX 12 to open. It ran in DX11 mode, but no GPU benchmarks were provided. In Metro Exodus, the GPU was able to deliver 70 FPS at 1080p and 55 FPS at 1440p with the High Quality preset. The user states that this is close to an RTX 3060 Mobile GPU, but the other benchmarks show performance close to or slightly faster than an RTX 3050. Only an average of 38 FPS in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a 4-year-old game, is just disappointing .

What makes this even worse is the fact that the RTX 3050 Mobile is an entry-level solution, while the Arc A730M GPU will be aimed at high-end gaming laptops. We’re not really seeing the “high-end” action in these benchmarks, though.

Intel Arc A730M Mobile GPU Gaming Benchmarks at 1080p & 1440p (Image credit: Weibo):

Intel Arc A370M GPU-powered laptops are available for pre-order for the North American, New Zealand and Australian markets

Now it is not known whether these gaming benchmarks were run with DTT disabled or enabled, which basically limits the TDP specification to improve battery life, but other than that, the Intel Arc A730M GPU did not deliver a playable experience as the user reported choppy gameplay and the above DirectX 12 issues in certain games. Enabling DTT can negatively impact GPU performance. Now we know why the high-end range of products was once again limited to the Chinese market before its global release and the reason is simply that the software is barely ready. Plastics don’t show actual gaming performance and even in that regard, there’s nothing good to say about Arc GPUs.

Intel’s Arc A5 and A7 GPUs for the global market are expected to go on sale alongside the discrete desktop graphics range by late summer, so we can hope that Intel will have their drivers ready and in a more working state by then .

Lineup of Intel Arc A-Series Mobility GPUs:

graphics card variant	GPU variant	GPU die	execution units	Shading Units (Cores)	storage capacity	memory speed	memory bus	TGP
Bow A770M	Xe-HPG 512EU	Arc ACM-G10	512 EUs	4096	16GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	256-bit	120-150W
Bow A730M	Xe-HPG 384EU	Arc ACM-G10	384 EUs	3072	12GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	192-bit	80-120W
Arch A550M	Xe-HPG 256EU	Arc ACM-G10	256 EUs	2048	8GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	128-bit	60-80W
Bow A370M	Xe-HPG 128EU	Arc ACM-G11	128 EUs	1024	4GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	64-bit	35-50W
Bow A350M	Xe-HPG 96EU	Arc ACM-G11	96 EUs	768	4GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	64-bit	25-35W

News source: HXL