A month after launch, Intel ARC graphic cards have seen a lot of serious improvements after Intel has published a consistent stream of updates.
Intel’s entrance to the GPU market was welcomed, as a third player should have made Nvidia and AMD stay on their toes. However, that wasn’t how it played out when the company launched their Arc GPUs.
This is because users quickly found out that their GPUs work poorly with games that use legacy APIs, such as DirectX 9. At the time, the first batch of Arc users accepted that they were doing testing on behalf of Intel. This may not necessarily because they are huge fans of Intel, as much as they also want to see a third player disrupt the GPU market.
Intel promised that they would put the work in to get their Arc GPUs performing at the expected level. Two months after launch, that hard work has borne fruit.
Multiple outlets have tested and confirmed that there is a drastic improvement in how Intel’s Arc GPU runs Counter Strike GO, perhaps the most high profile game that still runs primarily on DirectX 9. Testers have seen performance improve from 1.8 to 2 times as much, which would now make this card viable for esports for many players.
One of our sources tested a variety of other DirectX 9 games, and can confirm there are appreciable improvements in the way Arc GPUs run League of Legends, Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, Payday 2, and Stellaris.
Another tester also tested a variety of more modern games from different generations, and these improvements didn’t show in some of those games.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has also seen a performance boost. In this case it isn’t as dramatic a jump in framerates, but the game has a more consistent framerate, leading to a smoother experience for the player.
Cyberpunk 2077 does not demonstrate any improvement in performance.
The Arc GPUs still cannot run Spider-Man Remastered well. The new patches have removed the flickering issue the game was struggling with, but with lower framerates and overall performance as a result.
Grand Theft Auto 5 has demonstrated fair improvements, with a jump to as much as 20 FPS. However the game still has dips and stutters, which is not acceptable for a Direct X 10,1 to 11 game.
God Of War Ragnarok does not perform better on average, but like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, is now more consistent, giving players a smoother experience.
Finally, Red Dead Redemption 2 does not have DirectX improvements, but does yield a small improvement in performance using Vulcan.
The Arc GPUs are still not at a state where they can be fairly recommended to the average user, who will struggle with the inconsistencies with performance that will still need patching. However, their state now indicates Intel’s commitment to becoming a very real player, and points to a future where three GPU manufacturers will credibly battle for players’ wallets.
Source: YouTube, GSM Arena, Tom’s Hardware
