Intel Arc A380 Re-Tested with New Driver at Igor’s Lab
Little by little, Arc performance is improving
Igor Wallossek of Igor’s Lab has published a brief update on Arc A380 performance using the latest (at the time) beta driver. The results are promising, as things are moving in the right direction, but the improvement is in the low single digits.
Of note, as if to illustrate how temporary such a beta driver release can be, version 3259 was released yesterday (7/29/22) – replacing version 3220 on the same day this article on 3220 performance was published at Igor’s Lab.
Oh well. On to a couple of the results, beginning with overall performance at 1280×720:
Just looking at average framerates across all tested games at 720p, we find a 1.2% increase with A380 from version 1743 of the driver to version 3220. The the Arc A380 is still well behind the Radeon RX 6400 at this resolution, though it may be better to look at testing done at a higher resolution when evaluating GPU performance (just a thought).
Thankfully, Igor also provided a look at overall performance at 1920×1080 with the two driver versions:
At 1080p things are certainly more even, with the Radeon RX 6400’s lead down to just 0.5% as this 3220 driver boosted the Arc A380’s performance by 2.4% overall.
I won’t reveal any more of Igor’s findings as you should really read it from the source (link). The article is brief, but contains more charts including impact to low 1% FPS numbers, and API overhead testing.
Now we just have to wait for an article on version 3259.
That’s IF one can get the desired driver to install in the first place!!!!!
GamersNexus just ripped Intel a HUGE new one. Intel’s “driver” package is chock full of broken software, it’s so bad that not even DDU can get rid of and one would have to either reinstall windows or mnaully chase down the registry entries to get rid of them. What Intel should have done was just have a driver along with the hardware and over time when the software is ready then introduce those items then, not cram it all in as checkboxes for a feature list on a product package.
And to think Ryan Shrout went on that little PR tour which basically was to “put lipstick on a pig”… seriously can’t stand that pr marketing tool.
Intel has a very big uphill battle both internally and externally to get these GPUs and drivers in a good state.
Rumor/Leaks suggest that this first series of GPUs and quite possibly the next series have some design flaws causing them to under perform, hence the lower price tag and why the delay of launching is taking sooo long. I mean, other than part(s) of Asia, where else has the A380 actually launched? And for that matter, when is the actual launch date(s) for north america? everywhere I look it’s “TBD”
What we all really hope is that Intel does not just cancel their dGPU lineup over this embarrassing launch. Yea, the first 2 or 3 generations are “growing pains”, but seriously this launch just reeks of incompetence on so many levels. Like, how do you release software in that state, it is a management decision, did the marketing tools force the launch just to have talking points about value add, did QA group just literally fall asleep at the wheel?
They are supposed to be have a quiet, staggered release over the next few months, starting from next week (I forget the exact date), the TBD has not been the situation since sometime in the past two weeks, since Intel changed their plans from a single launch event to open an immediate release, to quitely releasing the cards in waves.
Whatever the performance may be with their cards, the drivers apparently are in a terrible state in terms of stability and endless broken features. These cards look to still be many months away from and possibility of being released. If they were to be put out with such terrible software the Arc brand would be destroyed before it ever had the chance to get going.