GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Kicks Intel's Arc A730M Around

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Ampere bullies Alchemist

Intel Arc
Intel Arc (Image credit: Intel)

Intel Arc A7-powered laptops won't be available in the U.S. market until late summer. But while we wait, Weibo user "Golden Pig Upgrade" has put the Arc A730M through its paces — and it looks like Intel's graphics card can't keep up with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile.

According to the review, the user's Arc A730M and GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile laptops use the same 14-core Core i7-12700 (Alder Lake-H) processor, so both devices are on an equal playing field. With mobile Ampere, Nvidia gave laptop vendors the freedom to tweak the TDP to their liking. As a result, there are tons of GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile SKUs with thermal values ranging from 80W to 115W. The model used in Golden Pig Upgrade's tests is the top 115W SKU, which has another 15W of provision for Dynamic Boost 2.0. In comparison, the Arc A730M has a maximum graphics power of 120W. 

The reviewer ran his tests using Intel's new Arc A730M-supporting graphics driver, Graphics Driver 30.0.101.1735, which was just released today. 

Even in his new video, the Weibo user didn't specify whether he enabled Dynamic Tuning Driver (DTT) on the Arc A730M laptop. As a quick reminder, DTT is Intel's equivalent to AMD SmartShift or Nvidia Dynamic Boost, which allows the laptop to reallocate the power that goes to the processor or graphics card depending on the workload. It's a fine piece of technology for battery life and performance optimization, but it can limit the device's performance in gaming.

Intel Arc A730M Benchmarks

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Metro Exodus Enhanced EditionBoundaryGears 5Gears TacticsHitman 2Civilization VIStrange BrigadeCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile72.8976.2133.4151.6100.2722.82200404.58
Arc A730M77.6920.790.3116.676.1113.365188135.15

The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile pulled a resounding victory over the Arc A730M. If we calculate the geometric mean for the average framerates, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile finished with a score of 109.58, while the Arc A730M put up 67.63. The GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile was up to 62% faster than the Arc A730M. The performance delta looks accurate, considering that the Arc A730M performed like a GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile in previous gaming benchmarks.

In eight of the titles, the Arc A730M only managed to score a victory over GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. On the other hand, Alchemist delivered up to 6.59% higher average framerates than its Ampere rival. Some of the most significant performance margins were in Boundary and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile machine was utilizing Nvidia DLSS in the former, giving it an unfair advantage.

The reviewer also provided some workstation GPU results in the shape of the popular SPECviewperf 2020 benchmark. The scenario didn't change, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile continued to dominate the Arc A730M with performance deltas spanning from 20% up to a whopping 515%.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

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26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • KananX
    Looks like huge driver problems on the Intel side for me.
    Reply
  • peachpuff
    It's definitely competitive, intel just needs to use some good ol' intel tactics (refunds/kickbacks to oems) and they'll easily increase their market share...
    Reply
  • KananX
    peachpuff said:
    It's definitely competitive, intel just needs to use some good ol' intel tactics (refunds/kickbacks to oems) and they'll easily increase their market share...
    :ROFLMAO: Too bad those “tactics” won’t work against Nvidia and the mindshare of intel in terms of GPU is just terrible, this isn’t “Pentium”.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    KananX said:
    :ROFLMAO: Too bad those “tactics” won’t work against Nvidia and the mindshare of intel in terms of GPU is just terrible, this isn’t “Pentium”.
    I don't think OEMs give a single flying duck about any of that, if an OEM makes a model that is for office work or general productivity or whatever and intel gives them gpus for cheap they are going to be all over that, nobody needs an nvidia for general stuff.
    As long as it works well enough for them to not have too many returns.
    Obviously gaming branded OEM stuff will be a different story.
    Reply
  • LastStanding
    The Metro measures proves that something is not conclusive here yet for all the Arc's metrics today.

    So far, these measures are useless, taunting, and inconclusive.
    Reply
  • wcbhkids
    TerryLaze said:
    I don't think OEMs give a single flying duck about any of that, if an OEM makes a model that is for office work or general productivity or whatever and intel gives them gpus for cheap they are going to be all over that, nobody needs an nvidia for general stuff.
    As long as it works well enough for them to not have too many returns.
    Obviously gaming branded OEM stuff will be a different story.

    No one really needs discrete video card for general stuff.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    wcbhkids said:
    No one really needs discrete video card for general stuff.
    Well, not everybody can hook up a typewriter to a laptop for output.
    OEMs use some CPUs without igpus and there any 'ol GPU (within reason) will do, and in general the cheaper the better.
    Reply
  • KananX
    TerryLaze said:
    I don't think OEMs give a single flying duck about any of that, if an OEM makes a model that is for office work or general productivity or whatever and intel gives them gpus for cheap they are going to be all over that, nobody needs an nvidia for general stuff.
    As long as it works well enough for them to not have too many returns.
    Obviously gaming branded OEM stuff will be a different story.
    Then you’re wrong, OEMs want to sell stuff and not keep it on the shelves because Intel has a terrible rep when it comes to GPUs. Must be hard for Intel fans to bear, but they failed hard with their plans this year. Wasn’t the original plan beginning of the year? Hahahaha. Now it’s not even mid year. Let’s see if it will be 2023 then.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    KananX said:
    Then you’re wrong, OEMs want to sell stuff and not keep it on the shelves because Intel has a terrible rep when it comes to GPUs. Must be hard for Intel fans to bear, but they failed hard with their plans this year. Wasn’t the original plan beginning of the year? Hahahaha. Now it’s not even mid year. Let’s see if it will be 2023 then.
    Look at current and past OEM models... I don't even have to say anything.
    Also the delays can just as well be because of tsmc not producing enough, not everybody does paper launches like amd and nvidia.
    If it takes until 2023 for intel to get a gpu out that will have a lasting stock and won't be scalped then so be it.
    Reply
  • KananX
    TerryLaze said:
    Look at current and past OEM models... I don't even have to say anything.
    Also the delays can just as well be because of tsmc not producing enough, not everybody does paper launches like amd and nvidia.
    If it takes until 2023 for intel to get a gpu out that will have a lasting stock and won't be scalped then so be it.
    That sounds like a hard cope, and by the time the intel stuff is really out (if ever), it’s too late. Every day that passes it’s more likely for them to scratch the plans and throw them out, cause their stuff isn’t competitive with current GPUs and much less next year, when we have RX 7000 and RTX 4000. Intel and GPUs = a endless meme.
    Reply