Intel Arc A770 Review

The high-performance graphics card segment has a new member, the Intel Arc A770 , with which the blue brand intends to compete with the Nvidia RTX 3060 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. For this, it has a 6 nm chip with 512 texture units, 32 ray tracing cores and no less than 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with Resizable BAR.

Its compatibility with DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.3.2 will allow you to run all the latest generation games and get a performance advantage thanks to XeSS . The limited edition version does its bit on the aesthetic side with a sleek dual-fan heatsink packed with RGB lighting . Will it live up to expectations? we will see next!

First of all, we thank Intel for their trust in us for sending us this graphics card for review.

Intel Arc A770 technical characteristics

Unboxing

The Intel Arc A770 card comes to us in a beautiful presentation in the form of a hard cardboard box where we see the corporate colors and the large ARC inscription. No specifications of the card are shown, so going directly inside we see that it has been placed between molds of high density polyethylene foam , but without using an insulating plastic bag.

The contents of the box will be as follows:

• Intel Arc A770graphics card
• Internal USB connection cable for RGB control
• user documentation

Exterior design

Intel has put all its efforts into its limited edition Intel Arc A770 to give the user not only a product that performs well, but also looks spectacular in gaming setups. For this, it has used a fairly compact dual-fan heatsink that is only 270 mm long, 100 mm wide once connected to the motherboard, and occupying 2 expansion slots.

Absolutely all outer covers are black with a sleek , smooth-textured matte finish . More specifically, the top cover will be made of aluminum , placed on the heatsink block without visible screws and integrating the two 90mm diameter fans. These are raised with respect to the plane of the deck with their 15 small-sized propellers and irregular edges to maximize airflow while maintaining a noise level of less than 39 dBA .

These fans have no frills in the rotational area, which is based on ball bearings for maximum durability. They also integrate an intelligent shutdown system when the GPU is at rest. If we look at the inner edge of them, we will discover an RGB lighting ring that will generate a nice aura effect around it, looking great on vertical GPU mounts.

And that’s not all, because if we go to the edges of the top cover we find an RGB lighting strip that runs through the entire periphery of the card in the form of a translucent plastic diffuser . Under it we have an opening that allows the heatsink to expel the hot air that passes through the fins. The rest of the area remains obscured by the backplate , and once again we have white LED lighting on the “Intel ARC” badge.

Backplate which in this case consists of a cover that completely closes the back of the PCB with the plastic cover without screws where a central aluminum plate is integrated. This area does not reach high temperatures, at least in our tests, so there is not much problem that it remains closed. Intel has had another detail such as integrating an umpteenth RGB lighting zone on the right outer edge of the aluminum plate.

video ports

Let’s now see the port configuration that this Intel Arc A770 has :

• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 3x DisplayPort 1.4a

Like almost all other graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia, this model has a total of 4 video outputs updated to the latest version available. The HDMI 2.1 port supports 8K @ 120 Hz and @ 60 Hz in DSC, as well as 4K @ 144 Hz uncompressed , so we can use high-end monitors.

The power input consists of two EPS headers , one of them complete with 8 pins and the other with 6, being a certainly demanding configuration for its 225W TBP . Next to the power input we have a small 3-pin connector for connecting the RGB control cable to an internal USB 2.0 header on the board . The communication interface in this case will be PCIe 4.0 x16, that is, it uses the full capacity of the slot, unlike the Arc A380 that only used 8 lanes.

Heatsink and PCB

This time we have not disassembled the Intel Arc A770 because we have enough images of the interior of the product in the documentation provided by the manufacturer. The fact of not using visible screws also certainly complicates access to the PCB.

We have an aluminum heatsink made up of a single block and a dense vertical fin that extends from one end to the other. The RGB elements and the external cover with the fans are installed directly on it. For its part, the cold plate responsible for cooling the CPU and memories consists of a copper block based on a vapor chamber with 4 heatpipes on the inside that distribute the heat throughout the surface of the block.

For its part, the CPU integrates the 406 mm ² graphics chip in the central area from which the PCIe tracks go directly to the slot. Around it we have the 8 GDDR6 memory chips, each with 2 GB under high-performance thermal pads. Finally, the power supply is provided by a VRM made up of 6 main phases and several secondary phases, of which we do not know the nominal power of their MOSFETS.

Intel Arc A770 architecture

Intel finally reaches the high-performance card market with a really interesting model due to its performance and capabilities. The architecture behind the DG2-512 chipset is the Alchemist Xe HPG , based on a 6nm fabrication process built by TSMC. Using a manufacturer outside of Intel is because the Azul brand does not work on this lithograph for CPUs or GPUs.

In the Intel Arc A770 a chip made up of 21.7 billion transistors ( 7.2 billion in the A380) is used, which is divided into 8 Rendering Segments , being the processing units so to speak. For each of these segments we have 4 Xe Cores, making a total of 32 units, being the main graphics unit so to speak (like Nvidia’s Streaming Multiprocessors). It features a 16MB L2 cache block shared between the graphics cores.

From here on, the internal architecture gets a little more complicated, as each of the Xe Cores is divided into 4 simpler functional units : 16 1024-bit Intel Xe Matrix Extensions Engines (XMX) for a total of 512 units (128 in the A380), which are in charge of working with XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) and AI technology, another 16 256-bit Xe Vector Engines (XVE) in charge of traditional rasterization tasks, generating a total of 512 units, 32 units RT Core for Ray Tracing (1 for each Xe Core), and a total sum of 4096 shading units or Sharders of a lifetime. Each Xe Vertor Engine has a floating point (FP) execution port and an INT/EM port, the former for shading tasks and the latter for integer operations.

Raw performance data for this GPU consists of a Pixel Rate of 268.8 GPixel/s , Texture Rates of 537.6 GTexel/s, 34.41 TFLOPS in FP16 performance (8.19 TFLOPS for the A380) and 17.20 TFLOPS in FP32. The whole set will run with a minimum clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a maximum of 2200 MHz. A TBP (Total Board Power) of 225W is specified for this , the same as the Arc A750 version.

This architecture with which Intel debuts already integrates Ray Tracing by hardware, which means that we can play and carry out tasks with engines that have realistic lighting technology. For this, 4 RT units are used for each Processing Segment as can be seen in the representation screenshots of the chipset. The A380 proved to have a great performance in this field despite having very few cores of this type, even surpassing the RT cores of AMD RDNA 2 cards , so we expect good results in this section.

In the section of dedicated VRAM memory we have two configurations available for the Intel Arc A77, an 8 GB configuration and the one that we analyzed of 16 GB, both using Samsung GDDR6 chips . These operate at a clock frequency of 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective), configured on a 256-bit bus , generating a total bandwidth of 512 GB/s. This model will be recommended from our point of view for being able to better adapt to games with high memory demand, that is, all current ones and even more so if they have ray tracing and an open world.

Reviewing Alchemist’s featured technologies , we have some XMX cores , capable of up to 256 operations per clock cycle , being the equivalent of Nvidia’s Tensor Core . In fact , XeSS technology will compete with Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR, having already shown excellent performance in games like Ghostwaire: Tokyo, Death Stranding and Marvel’s Spiderman.

This technology , implemented on DirectX 12 , will also be compatible with cards from AMD or Nvidia, rivals that do not have XMX cores, using the DP4a hardware that will work at 64 operations per clock cycle and therefore achieve less effectiveness. In fact, we will see a comparison between this A770 and the Nvidia RTX 3060 to see what performance improvement we get in each one.

Another addition of vital importance especially in the world of content creation will be the implementation of hardware acceleration through AV1 encoding , something that only Nvidia’s new Ada Lovelace graphics cards do. It is a standard designed for 8K video 50 times faster than current decoders , so it will be an excellent card for this type of encoding even without being as extreme as Nvidia’s RTX 4090.

Intel Deep Link is another cool feature that is able to combine Arc GPUs with Intel processors to unlock higher performance. Mainly focuses on laptops by using Dynamic Power to balance power between CPU and GPU, somewhat similar to Nvidia Optimus

Test bench and performance test

It’s time to see the Intel Arc A770 in action through benchmarks and gaming tests. The test bench is made up of the following hardware:

We have run the tests on Windows 11 Pro 22H2 with the Intel drivers in their beta version 101.3491 as they are recommended by the brand.

The playability of a graphics card can be assessed in several steps according to the framerate:

Benchmarks

For the benchmark tests we will use the following programs:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal, ultra y extreme (DX11)
• 3DMark Time Spy normal y extreme (DX12)
• Port Royal (RT)
• VRMARK Orange Room
• Pure Raytracing

In the synthetic performance tests, this Intel card shows better performance than even the Radeon RX 6600 XT and the Nvidia RTX 3060, which would be a more direct rival for performance and price. The good performance shown in the Ray Tracing test is surprising, surpassing even the RX 6750 XT, demonstrating the great power of the ray processing units as we could also see in the A380. Of course, it also outperforms its rivals in the Pure Ray Tracing test, albeit just barely.

game testing

We continue our reviews of the Intel Arc A770 by evaluating its gaming performance at Full HD, 2K, and 4K resolutions.

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Alto, TAA, DX12
• Far Cry 5, Alto, TAA, DX12
• Eternal DOOM, Ultra, TAA, Volcano
• Final Fantasy XV, standard, TAA, DX11
• Deus EX Mankind Divided, Alto, DX11
• Metro Exodus, Alto, DX12
• Control, High, no RTX, 1920x1080p rendering, DX12
• Gears 5, Alto, TAA, DX12
• Red Dead Redemption 2, Alto, DX12
• Horizon Zero Dawn, Calidad, DX12
• Assassins Creed Valhalla, Alto, DX12

In 1080p the performance shown by this card places it constantly below the RTX 3060, however it is gaining ground in 1440p until it is above its rival in many of the 4K tests. Although we must determine that it is not a powerful GPU to offer a great experience at full resolution, so its scope of work will be 1080p and 2K at least with powerful games and high graphic quality.

Testing in games with Ray Tracing

We are going to show the performance in games with Ray Tracing , the same graphic settings in quality and in the same resolutions as before.

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider, RT Alto, XeSS Equilibrado, DX12
• Metro Exodus, RT Alto, DX12
• Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, RT Alto, DX12
• Battlefield V, RT Alto, DX12
• Cyberpunk 2077, RT Ultra, FSR Performance, DX12

Ray tracing tests will be limited to games that support RT by DX12 , rendering at variable resolution XeSS or even FSR being a huge help as it is also supported by this card. In the titles that we have been able to test with one of the two solutions, or both, this A770 exchanges places with the 3060, surpassing it in some games , while in others it falls far short, obviously those where the Nvidia card takes advantage of having a function DLSS.

Rendering and performance tests

We have tested its performance in several design and rendering programs:

• Blender 2.9 Cycles + proyecto The Junk Shop

Overclocking

We will perform the overclocking test on the Intel Arc A770 using Intel Arc Control and extracting results through 3DMark Fire Strike and Shadow Of The Tomb Raider in the different resolutions.

We have achieved a 240 MHz increase by adjusting the power limit and clock parameters in the control software, however it seems that it does not support specific figures in the frequency, giving jumps of 50 in 50 MHz as shown by GPU-Z. In any case, we have increased the consumption limit from 190W to 225W, achieving a small increase of just 3 FPS in the three resolutions on Tomb Raider.

temperatures and consumption

We proceed to verify temperatures and consumption of the Intel Arc A770 subjecting it to stress using FurMark . We will use HWiNFO , GPU-Z and Nvidia PCAT to monitor telemetry and a wattmeter that measures the consumption of the entire benchmark except the monitor. The ambient temperature in the room will be 23 ^o C.

Repose

Stress

The performance / consumption ratio will not be the best in its class, and we see it in the figures shown with the test bench under stress, by surpassing the closest cards such as the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT. Individual consumption is 42W at idle and 190W under stress according to GPU-Z, but applying the PCAT tool the actual consumption will be 49W at idle and 243W under stress , thus exceeding the 225W we set as TBP.

The temperatures have also turned out a little higher than we expected , because with maximums of 78ºC under stress with the fans at 100%, we could have little room for improvement. Although the heatsink is striking and elegant, it lacks a little more thickness to be more effective.

Performance comparison XeSS vs DLSS vs FSR

For this small comparison, the games Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Marvel’s Spiderman and Ghostwire Tokyo .

In the first instance we see that in the three games the performance improvements with XeSS activated range from 40% to more than 80%, increasing the higher the game resolution, except for Spiderman, which in 1080p is a strange case due to its poor performance in general.

Comparing the above figures with FSR on Ghostwire Tokyo and Marvel’s Spiderman games, the AMD feature seems to have a slight edge over XeSS at 1080p, but the Intel feature gains the upper hand with higher resolutions until it is the best option at 4K.

Finally in a comparison with DLSS and the performance shown on the Nvidia RTX 3060, it seems that the AI ​​and deep learning based function shows almost the same performance improvement in all 3 resolutions.

Marvel´s SpidermanShadow of the Tomb RaiderShadow of the Tomb RaiderShadow of the Tomb RaiderMarvel´s SpidermanGhostwire TokyoGhostwire Tokyo

The differences in graphic quality are imperceptible between the 4K captures, while in 2K DLSS it seems to behave a little better in definition. XeSS is therefore a more than effective function in the games where it is used.

Final words and conclusion about the Intel Arc A770

This time yes, Intel has a graphics card powerful enough to compete head-to-head with the two brands that have a monopoly in the PC and console gaming segment. The Azul brand has done an impeccable job on its Alchemist architecture , which can have a bright future if it stays current in the face of push from other manufacturers.

The A770 is a card that is comfortable in 1080p and 2K resolution with high quality games, however it is not capable of getting as much performance in Full HD as the RTX 3060 , its direct rival. On the other hand, it shows its processing capacity in 4K , which, although not its ideal resolution, offers better performance than its rivals. A somewhat curious feature, it must be said, but if we adjust the graphics well, perhaps it can become an acceptable off-roader.

Visit our guide to the best graphics cards on the market

The ray tracing section is very interesting because it offers impressive performance, especially with its 16 GB GDDR6 , comfortably surpassing the RT cores of AMD RDNA 2 and staying on par with Nvidia Ampere. If we add to this the XeSS function , we can perfectly reach performance improvements similar to FSR and even DLSS 2.0 with an image quality as good as Nvidia’s solution.

This Intel Arc A770 is presented at a price of €450 in its limited edition with that impressive heatsink aesthetically speaking, although not so much in terms of efficiency as it goes a little fair in temperatures . The current price of an RTX 3060 is very similar for custom models and therefore makes things very difficult for Intel. Without a doubt, it is a very good start when considering it as a real option and even better in high resolution , the difficult thing for the brand of processors will be to keep up with the two leading brands in the market today.

The professional review team awards him the gold medal

Intel Arc A770

COMPONENT QUALITY – 86%

DISSIPATION – 83%

GAMING EXPERIENCE – 86%

LOUDNESS – 88%

PRECIO – 90%

87%

The Intel Arc A770 convinces with its solid performance and is able to compete with the Nvidia RTX 3060 at a similar price, with very powerful RT cores and Full RGB heatsink