Intel Admits to Performance Drop When Arc GPUs Are Used With Older Processors; Launches Investigation

Intel is finally taking a closer look into the performance issues reported with their Arc GPUs, particularly when used with older CPUs. They’ve started an investigation to identify and fix the problems.

When the Intel Arc B580 and B570 GPUs first launched, they seemed promising. They offered more VRAM compared to competitors, yet failed to appear on performance charts. The main reason many users avoided these Battlemage GPUs is due to disappointing optimizations.

The issue wasn’t isolated to Intel’s GPU drivers alone. There was a significant problem causing the Arc Battlemage GPUs to underperform compared to rivals. If you recall, Hardware Unboxed was among the first to highlight the Arc B580’s weak performance when paired with older processors like the Ryzen 2000 and Intel’s 9th gen Core processors.

It took Intel quite some time to address this, but they finally issued a response in the forums. Here’s the complete statement Intel shared:

“Thank you for your patience. We are aware of reports of performance sensitivity in some games when paired with older generation processors. We have increased our platform coverage to include more configurations in our validation process, and we are continuing to investigate optimizations.”

From this, it seems Intel has been aware of the issue for some time but hadn’t prioritized optimization efforts. They’re now planning to extend performance improvements to more configurations, suggesting a resolution might be on the horizon. However, they haven’t specified when these updates will be available.

Intel will need to roll out driver updates, as their current hardware is competitive with previous-generation rivals in more recent games. It was unexpected to see subpar performance with Intel’s own older CPUs, unlike the latest Intel and AMD models which didn’t suffer the same setbacks.

With future patches, it’s hoped Intel can stand shoulder to shoulder with AMD and NVIDIA in the GPU market. However, this doesn’t automatically guarantee that Intel will gain a stronger foothold. The Arc Battlemage GPUs have generally been scarce in the market, and poor availability has limited their presence in the budget segment of the current GPU competition.

News Source: Intel