Intel’s Arc A380 Is A Disaster On Launch, Claim Many Tech Enthusiasts
Intel recently launched its Arc A series of GPUs which were rather interesting to say the least. However, many reviewers have not taken Intel’s incompetency lightly.
The disaster at launch
igorslab did not like Intel’s method of launching their first ever ‘discrete gaming GPU‘, the Arc A380.
Our samples were purchased privately in Hong Kong, because curiosity dies last, as we all know, and Intel would probably also be the last to ask for a fair sampling, because they apparently trust their own product even less than the objectivity and impartiality of the testers involved
~ igorslab
This shows that there were major hurdles in even obtaining the GPU as the Arc A380 was first announced in China. A few global reviewers such as Gamer’s Nexus, got their hands on the Arc A380 but one could consider that as a sponsorship from Intel. Even the Chinese enthusiasts suffered at the hands of Intel’s neglectence as just yesterday the GPU was available to the locals for the first time while still being priced 10% higher than MSRP.
Unoptimized drivers
Shenmedounengce, a Chinese tech reviewer blames the driver optimization in a vided posted on bilibili. The Arc A380 can rival and even beat out many GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD in 3DMark’s benchmarking program, however, the actual gaming performance lags behind significantly.
Staying on the software side of things, Intel has a hidden feature called “Advanced Performance Optimizations” on its Arc A380 which when toggled ON, supposedly increases performance. Many reviewers claim this feature must be turned ON, in order to obtain better performance and if turned OFF, it will lag behind other GPUs in the same performance category.
Intel Arc A380 may be tripping itself up with its own performance-boosting feature
Not all hope is lost for Intel
Although, Intel had a rough start in the GPU market it still has a lot to offer for its price and the fact that with time the performance will improve acts as a beacon of hope .
The Arc A380 still has its appeal – after all, XGI was the third manufacturer bought by SiS in 2010. And the drivers from Intel are by no means as bad as the drivers of the Volari V8 Duo, especially since the manufacturer updates them at regular intervals. They have to, because the Arc A770 at the top is supposed to overtake the Geforce RTX 3070. And in this price and performance segment, a well-rounded driver is definitely a must.
~ Golem
The Arc A380 may lag behind the GTX 1650 from NVIDIA, however, on enabling ReBar and after a slight overclock , it is on par with the 1650 while consuming less power showing that this SKU does have some life in it.
The light at the end of the tunnel may be the fact that with each iteration Intel is expected to improve its architecture and more importantly, its drivers. Although, these cards may not be for the average gamer as of now but as time goes on, they will surely attract the attention content creators and the average consumer.
