The Intel Arc A770 had its release in October 2022. Fresh out of the oven, the Intel Arc A770 is finally a discrete GPU with high results. Intel has brought in a few updates since the Arc A750, and the output is noticeable. The aggressive price setting has finally put team blue on the map.
Intel has gone about its way with its Arc series GPUs, and rigorous performance tests show that the gaming and tech community has put the card through. The performance levels of the Intel Arc A770 are typically comparable to Nvidia RTX 3060 or 3070 Ti. Namely, the Arc A770 is somewhere between the two. But at the same time, this GPU has its ups and downs.
Specs and performance of Intel Arc A770
Some of the key features of the Intel Arc A770 have brought about its desirability in discussion for the gaming community. This graphics card from Intel has had a peculiar effect on gaming performance owing to Intel's architecture. This has been an unpredictability factor since its launch, and Intel has been on top of it, dishing out updates and fixes to smoothen its rough edges.
Performance
When it comes to running games, the Intel Arc A770 seems to be doing great. It can run games at 1080p in high and 1440p in medium settings. The graphics card is DirectX 12 oriented, which is to say, most big-name games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, Cyberpunk 2077, etc., would run okay on this GPU.
In mid to low-level settings, the card manages to churn out an average of 80-100 frame rates with minimal lags. The min and max outputs variations stick within an acceptable margin and go neck in neck with the RTX 3060.
DirectX compatibility
Gaming performance starts degrading with lower DirectX games and consequently even does worse than some of the old graphics cards. The reason being the use of a Microsoft mapping layer that essentially translates the earlier DirectX commands to DX12 commands.
Speaking of compatibility, it seems like a good choice as it brings versatility. But the resultant load on the processing power of the CPU is a disadvantageous side effect, so much so that any internal processes start hindering its outputs.
Driver update
Since its release, users have had quite a few complaints about driver support of the Intel Arc A770. Being a relatively new release, it is well within the expected margin, and Intel has since swiftly resolved such issues on its end. Over time, it is evident that Intel will develop this series to compete well with Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
Pricing
The major selling point of the Intel Arc A770. as of yet, lies in the absolute budget pricing it has launched in. A graphic card close to the RTX 3060 in terms of performance and at about half its price is a desirable choice for many looking to build a budget PC that can run some graphics-heavy games.
Resizable Bar
For that matter, Intel Arc A770 and all others are majorly dependent on using the resizable bar. It is a PCI Express interface technology that helps transfer the game assets between the COU and GPU of the system. Different aspects like textures, geometry, etc., and assets are rendered throughout a game.
The resizable makes the transfer easier by allowing parallel data flow instead of series between the CPU and GPU. The catch is that the system's motherboard should be compatible with the same and is currently provided with the 9th gen or newer models.
Consequent driver updates are also necessary, making the Intel Arc A770 a graphics card targeted primarily toward newer systems.
Conclusion
Intel Arc A770 is a graphics card with decent performance in DirctX12 games, the newer releases, and struggles with the older ones. Gamers will need extensive graphics settings to draw out the max output of the card.
Regarding the 8 GB variant, the 16 GB variant is already out and is a better option if you are going for it anyway. But with competitive pricing, continual updates, and major R&D, team blue is surely winding up with some major updates for 2023 that might be worth waiting for. You can buy it on Amazon.