Intel Arc 380 video card disappoints in first reviews
Several hardware sites posted reviews of the Intel Arc 380 video card online this afternoon. The Arc 380 was recently released, but is currently only available in China by Intel. The German hardware sites Computerbase, Golem and Igor’s Lab bought Intel’s new video card themselves via Chinese platforms and tested it.
With the Arc series, Intel is entering the market for separate video cards. Compared to competitors AMD and Nvidia, the Arc 380 is positioned opposite the Radeon RX 6400 and GeForce GTX 1650 Super. The suggested retail price of the Arc 380 would have been set at 130 to 140 US dollars.
Disappointing performance and stability
Gunnir Intel Arc A380
The performance of the Intel Arc 380 is disappointing according to the publications. The reason for this seems not so much the limited computing power for the price segment, but in particular the current state of the drivers. Several games failed to run, especially when Resizable BAR was disabled on the test system. This technique is part of the PCI-Express standard and allows more efficient access to larger amounts of video memory. That the Arc video card relies so much on ReBar to function stably is striking because AMD and Nvidia do get varying performance gains from this technique, but do not require ReBar for stable operation.
The current drivers for the Arc 380 also cannot handle ReBar on AMD’s Ryzen processors; the feature only works with this technique on Intel’s own processors. Combined with the stability issues, this means that Intel Arc video cards can currently only be used for gaming purposes in a limited number of scenarios. It is currently unclear when Intel will add support for ReBar on Ryzen processors to the Arc drivers.
| Intel Arc 380 (ReBar on) |
Intel Arc 380 (ReBar off) |
Radeon RX 6500 XT | GeForce GTX 1650 | |
| Anno 1800 – 1080p High Avg. fps (1% low fps) |
32.2 fps (24.9fps) |
29.5fps (22.1fps) |
57.8 fps (46.7fps) |
37.1 fps (28.6 fps) |
| CS:GO – 1080p Very High Avg. fps (1% low fps) |
121.8 fps (60.4fps) |
– | 249.4 fps (142.2 fps) |
143.1fps (94.9fps) |
|
Gears 5 – 1080p High |
61.1 fps (36.3fps) |
44.9fps (29.1 fps) |
80.9fps (63.5fps) |
63.7fps (42.8fps) |
| God of War – 1080p Original Avg. fps (1% low fps) |
40.4fps (34.7 fps) |
30.8fps (20.5 fps) |
60.3 fps (50.7fps) |
42.3fps (36.8fps) |
| Jurassic World 2 – 1080p High Avg. fps (1% low fps) |
– | – | 48.7fps (30.5 fps) |
35.2fps (24.4fps) |
| The Witcher 3 – 1080p High Avg. fps (1% low fps) |
33.9fps (11.3 fps) |
29.7fps (10.2fps) |
53.8fps (40.8fps) |
36.5 fps (21.1 fps) |
Test results from golem.de on an Intel Core i5 12400F, 32GB DDR4-3200, Windows 10 x64.
Stuttering sequence of images
According to the test results of the German site Golem.de, the Intel Arc 380 can almost compete with a GeForce GTX 1650 when ReBar is enabled. Without this feature, both average frame rates and frame times are worse. The proportions between the decline in frame rates and frame times vary by game when ReBar is disabled. In The Witcher 3, the frame times both with and without ReBar are particularly bad. Golem then decided to plot a more extensive frametime graph, which makes it painfully clear how much work Intel still has to do in the field of drivers for the Arc series of video cards before we can talk about a smooth sequence of images, and therefore a pleasant gaming experience.
Intel Arc 380 and Radeon RX 6400 in The Witcher 3. Via Golem.de.
You can read the full reviews of the Intel Arc 380 at computer base, golem and Igor’s Lab.