Do all of the 250 games we played launch?
Do they all play without major graphical issues?
Is Arc capable of delivering playable performance in all these titles?
We have gathered some great data to explore.
For this review we’ve tested theIntel Arc A770 16GB currently Intel’s fastest graphics card in 250 games.
Intel updates their drivers regularly, so as of writing, the latest version is32.0.101.5762.
We also looked for any obvious visual artifacts.
This includes missing textures or assets, visual glitches like shadow flickering, or any other major problems.
Finally, we wanted to see to it each game is actually playable from a performance perspective.
For most games, this meant achieving 40 FPS at a minimum.
That just wasn’t feasible.
The games that work on Arc aren’t skewed to any era either.
Most titles from this year and last year work well on the A770.
Looking back 10 years ago, Arc is very capable of a high-refresh experience using ultra configs.
We were also impressed with the general compatibility of games that are very old by modern standards.
One was even capped at 30 FPS, which is a disgrace.
Another 11 games could be run on at least Very High with some form of upscaling.
An additional 13 titles had no controls as they were lightweight or indie titles.
That’s 209 titles running on Arc without having to resort to the lower presets.
Low parameters were required for Immortals of Aveum and Horizon Forbidden West.
In others like Days Gone andCrysis 3, this was more surprising.
This could catch out novice users, and Intel should advise developers not to code games in this way.
Games with Visual Artifacts and Issues
We noticed graphical artifacts in six games.
This is not an issue on the Radeon RX 6650 XT, which loads textures correctly in this configuration.
In Dirt Rally, we noticed glitching on water streams in the background, appearing as weird black dots.
When this artifact appears, rain looks awful.
In contrast, the exact same scene using higher controls on the RX 6650 XT works just fine.
AndThe Witcher 3, which has some shadow flickering that we spotted in our test area.
In summary, two games with visual issues and four with seeming graphical compatibility issues on Intel Arc specifically.
Games with Performance Issues
And for last we’ve left the games where we observed performance-related issues.
Let’s focus on the games that run badly but aren’t necessarily unplayable first.
Playable in this sort of game, but not ideal.
Another example is Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
Using low parameters with XeSS Performance, this is another game that struggles to consistently reach 60 FPS.
That can’t be said for some of the games we played, though.
Dragon’s Dogma II is one example that is totally unplayable and needs significant driver work.
This was using the absolute lowest possible prefs, which also made the game look terrible.
In contrast, we didn’t see any noticeable frame rate drops or issues on the Radeon 6650 XT.
Again, this title runs just fine on a Radeon card and can even be enjoyed on Ultra prefs.
Metro Last Lightis the final title we wanted to highlight.
This makes Last Light run significantly worse than its sequel,Metro Exodus.
Dragon’s Dogma II was one of the unplayable games, and that was released this year.
So here’s the final breakdown of the 32 games with issues.
But it does point to fewer concerns on the Radeon side.
For example, theirperformance overlayinexplicably does not include an FPS counter.
There’s also the small point of power consumption.
Most older titles work fine.
Old games are basically solved, popular games are solved.
If Intel can tick this last box, they’ll be in a great position.
The Arc A770 and most of Intel’s GPU line-up are in a difficult place competitively.
Our most recent data has the A770 essentially matching these GPUs in performance on average at 1440p.
In this scenario, we believe Arc GPUs simply have to be cheaper than competitors.
Right now, Intel is making it too easy to pick up a GeForce or Radeon GPU instead.
Most games work just fine on Arc.
If you mostly play popular multiplayer games, Arc is a very suitable choice.
The range of features and included software is respectable.
It’s just not the best there is at its current price.
But will a new generation change that?
There’s a chance.
WillArc Battlemagestart from a much better position with a more solid foundation?
