Early Intel GPU Benchmark Provides a Glimmer of Hope

As Tweeted by @TUM_APISAK, a new Ashes of the Singularity benchmark reveals potential but vague performance figures for Intel's upcoming Arc Alchemist DG2 graphics card. According to the results, we could be looking at performance in the ballpark of an RTX 3070 or RTX 3070 Ti, some of the best graphics cards currently (not really) available. Apply liberal helpings of salt.

Unfortunately, comparing this benchmark result with others remains difficult at best. We have no idea which DG2 GPU was tested, and the GPU was tested using the 1080p medium preset, paired with a Core i9-12900K and 32GB of RAM. That's not a common preset to benchmark within Ashes of the Singularity, and the test is known to be highly influenced by CPU performance.

Average FPS in the benchmark hit 126.9 FPS, while the CPU frame rate was able to score a higher 145.8, which isn't surprising given the use of a super-fast Core i9-12900K that should scale very well in this benchmark due to its multi-core optimizations.

Finding comparable benchmark results that used the same CPU and 1080p medium preset is unfortunately quite difficult, and the numbers can vary significantly. For example, there's are quite a few benchmark with the i9-12900K and an RTX 3090 that show anywhere from a 141.1 average frame rate up to 169.7 fps, with CPU frame rates of around 140 to 170 fps as well.

The main problem is that there are so many missing details, including CPU and GPU clocks, not to mention the Arc DG2 result showing a "0 x 0" resolution. Plus, there's the simple fact that Ashes performance doesn't scale that well with faster GPUs, especially when using the 1080p medium preset. For example, while the 3090 potentially looks to be 11–30% faster than the DG2 result, here's an RTX 2060 result that's only 17% slower than the DG2.

Judging by these results, while we can estimate that the Arc Alchemist is performing similarly to an RTX 3070 Ti or possibly even an RTX 3080, that's only in this specific benchmark at these settings. Extrapolating performance to other games based on Ashes is, at best, unlikely to produce an accurate overall picture of performance. But the fact that pre-release results look decent even in this one (questionable) benchmark is at least something.

If Intel can match some of Nvidia's higher-end RTX 30-series cards with its first (true, not counting DG1) dedicated GPU in more than 20 years, on its first try, then team blue could end up as a serious competitor against both Nvidia and AMD in the GPU space.

Currently, we know Intel Arc Alchemist has at least three set SKUs that Intel will release in the future: an entry-level product, a mid-range card, and a high-end flagship. There's the possibility of a fourth SKU that will slot in between the high-end and mid-range GPUs, but we don't have any concrete data on its specifications just yet.

Judging by the performance shown in this result, we're probably looking at the high-end SKU consisting of 4096 GPU (ALU) cores and 512 EUs (now Vector Engines) running with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. There have been hints of an expected launch price MSRP of $599, but in a world of graphics card shortages, there's a good chance even a modest performing GPU from Intel will still end up with higher street pricing.