Intel Arc Graphics A750 + A770 Linux Gaming Performance

After months of hearing all sorts of rumors and FUD online about the state of Intel Arc Graphics, the A750 and A770 testing under Linux the past week went better than expected. There still are some performance issues as shown in this article and other software driver items to be ironed out, but the Arc Graphics A750 and A770 graphics cards were running on Linux -- and using a fully upstream, open-source driver stack.

It's great now having a second dGPU vendor with fully upstream, open-source Linux drivers with AMD Radeon graphics having been trumpeted the past decade due to that attribute. But due to the fact you need to be running Linux 6.0+ as a kernel just declared stable this past Sunday and really needing to be riding Mesa Git for the best OpenGL/Vulkan support, the Arc Graphics A750/A770 graphics cards really aren't for novice Linux users right now. Unless you are comfortable upgrading to the very latest kernel and using the very newest Mesa code, you would be best off waiting until at least the H1'2023 Linux distributions when there should be sufficient out-of-the-box Linux distribution or when Intel has some path to make it easier to deploy their latest driver builds on Linux.

If you did enjoy riding the open-source AMD train a decade ago and all those fun adventures when they were raising and maturing their open-source driver stack, then Intel Arc Graphics should be a fun ride. Or if you want to jump early on the oneAPI train and begin working on porting code to SYCL for multi-vendor GPU acceleration, experimenting with the Level Zero interfaces, or try out other aspects of Intel's open-source software stack, the Arc Graphics A750/A770 (and even the budget A380) are great starting points. I share much of the same sentiment from my Arc Graphics A380 review that these DG2/Alchemist cards from the Linux perspective are really great for open-source enthusiasts and developers. On the open-source Linux side where you can be rolling Intel's latest driver code effectively on a daily basis and be enjoying their expansive oneAPI software ecosystem, the Arc Graphics A750 at $289 or the Arc Graphics A770 at $329~349 is a decent buy-in point and investment into the future of open-source GPU computing. But for those not comfortable rolling their own driver builds or just looking to game without any headaches, you are better waiting for the H1'2023 Linux distributions when there should be more mature out-of-the-box support or even with Intel's next-gen "Battlemage" discrete GPUs are ready that will surely be even faster and by then hopefully be better positioned with their drivers.

In any event this is a very exciting time with Intel's open-source driver stack and stay tuned to Phoronix over the weeks ahead for continued benchmarks as the i915 DRM and Mesa Iris/ANV drivers continue improving for follow-up benchmarks. Thanks to Intel for providing the launch-day review samples of the Arc Graphics A750/A770.