Intel Arc Alchemist A370M GPU Gaming Benchmarks show competitive performance over NVIDIA RTX 3050

Two months after its launch, PCWorld released the first Intel Arc Alchemist A370M GPU benchmarks. The A370M is the entry-level GPU within the Arc A-Series and is designed for budget laptops to compete with NVIDIA’s and AMD’s entry-level GPU offerings.

Intel Arc A370M Alchemist GPU gets first gaming benchmarks, shows competitive performance compared to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050

The Intel Arc A370M is positioned within the discrete entry-level GPU segment and is based on the ACM-G11 SKU, the smallest of the two Arc Alchemist SKUs. It uses a full ACM-G11 GPU configuration with 8 Xe cores (1024 ALU), 8 air monitoring units, 1550 MHz graphics clock, 4 GB of 64-bit GDDR6 memory and a TDP range of 35-50 W. This chip would fight GeForce RTX 3050 series and Radeon RX 6500 series.

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Matt Smith of PCWorld managed to get a reference notebook based on MSI’s Summit E16 Flip Evo design and managed to launch some benchmarks. The laptop was only available for testing at Intel’s Jones Farm campus, based in Portland, Oregon. This once again confirms the limited availability of Arc within regions other than Asia. Intel Arc A350M laptops are shipped to customers, but only in select Korean and Asian markets and only in Samsung / Lenovo design. Other laptop manufacturers have yet to present their Arc-powered portfolio. Some cited drivers as the main cause of delays, while others cited small amounts of GPUs.

So, by coming to the benchmark, Intel has allowed only four benchmarks to run in its controller test environment that includes one synthetic and three AAA titles. First, we have the Time Spy score from 3DMark where the Intel Arc A370M GPU scored 4405 points on graphics tests. The comparative GeForce RTX 3050 scores 4396 points which means the A370M really offers faster performance (in synthetic workloads). This is already a big improvement compared to the initial results, which showed a result of only 3196 points on the same test. These tests were done with DTT enabled which causes large performance losses as shown by Korean PC testers.

Intel Arc A370M Discrete GPU Test Suit (courtesy of PCWorld):

• 3DMark Time Spy: Standard demonstration of Time Spy at default settings.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: DX12 1080p highest settings, Ray Tracing off, TAA on.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker: 1080p at the highest (Desktop) settings.
• Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition: 1080p at high scale settings.
• Topaz Video Enhance AI: The .80 second 1080p .MOV file has been increased to 4K using the mid-quality Artemis AI model.

Moving on to games, we first have the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker benchmark where the Intel Arc A370M is slightly slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 at 1080p High. Performance moves to Intel’s side in the scale of Shadow of The Tomb Raider at 1080p Highest with a blue team leading with 9 FPS compared to NVIDIA RTX 3050. Finally, in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, the blue team loses by 3 FPS at 1080p High, but neither one of the two GPUs is not capable of producing frame rates that can be played over 30 FPS. One thing to note is that none of these benchmarks use any of the DLSS or XeSS capabilities that the new GPUs have to offer, and even hardware air monitoring has not been used as ‘Normal’ preset air monitoring only allows hybrid reflections and not uses full air monitoring. reflections.

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Intel Arc A370M Gaming Benchmarks (image credit: PCWorld):

So, you are generally looking at 2% better performance for the NVIDIA RTX 3050 compared to the Intel Arc A370M GPU. This is definitely a decent performance considering that this is exactly the level of graphics performance that Intel is targeting with this discrete entry-level GPU. The Arc A350M GPU is positioned relative to the RTX 2050 which is also based on the Ampere GPU, while the A370M is positioned against the RTX 3050. Content creation is also one strength for Intel where the GPU achieved 38% better performance thanks to its DeepLink capabilities that allow a discrete GPU to use the integrated Iris GPU on the CPU for faster performance.

Intel Arc A370M (PCWorld) GPU performance

Benchmark	Intel Arc A370M (MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo)	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED)	Intel Iris Xe (MSI Summit E14 Flip)	A370M vs. 3050	A370M against Iris Xe
3DMark Time Spy (graphics test)	4405	4396	1832	+ 0%	+ 140%
Final Fantasy XIV (1080p High)	7196	7639	4674	-6%	+ 54%
Shadow of The Tomb Raider (1080p high)	59	50	21	+ 18%	+ 181%
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p High)	19	22	ON	-14%	ON
Topaz Video Enhance AI	134	187	486	+ 40%	+ 163%

Now considering these performance numbers, we can definitely expect similar performance from the NVIDIA RTX 3050, but these are just three games. However, one thing is for sure, the 3050 is a faster GPU than the AMD RX 6500M, which the red team claimed has much better gaming performance than the ARC A370M.

AMD seems to have called it a win by comparing Intel’s discrete GPU prematurely and the final performance could be better for the blue team if it adjusts its drivers correctly. The current problem is that most vendors will ship Arc-powered laptops, even with the Alchemist A350M and A370M GPUs, in the third quarter of 2022, as confirmed by recent reports of long delays.

Intel Arc A-Series Mobility GPU line:

Graphics card variant	GPU variant	GPU Die	Executive units	Shading units (cores)	Memory capacity	Memory speed	Memory bus	TGP
Arc A770M	Vehicle-HPG 512EU	Bow ACM-G10	512 EU	4096	16 GB GDDR6	16 Gbps	256-bit	120-150W
Arc A730M	Vehicle-HPG 384EU	Bow ACM-G10	384 EU	3072	12 GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	192-bit	80-120W
Arc A550M	Vehicle-HPG 256EU	Bow ACM-G10	256 EU	2048	8 GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	128-bit	60-80W
Arc A370M	Vehicle-HPG 128EU	Bow ACM-G11	128 EU	1024	4 GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	64-bit	35-50W
Arc A350M	Vehicle-HPG 96EU	Bow ACM-G11	96 of the EU	768	4 GB GDDR6	14 Gbps	64-bit	25-35W