Intel Admits to Performance Issues with Arc GPUs on Older Processors; Launches Investigation

Intel is finally tackling the performance issues plaguing its Arc GPUs, particularly when paired with older CPUs, in an effort to resolve the ongoing problem.

Intel Addresses Arc GPU Performance Challenges with Legacy Ryzen and Intel Core Chips

Initially, the Intel Arc B580 and B570 GPUs seemed promising and offered more VRAM than their rivals. Yet, they failed to make a significant impact, partly due to subpar optimizations that discouraged many potential adopters of the Battlemage GPUs.

The issue isn’t just about the Intel GPU drivers—it’s a broader problem that left the Arc Battlemage GPUs trailing behind their competitors. Hardware Unboxed was among the earliest to highlight the poor performance of the Arc B580 when used with older CPUs like the Ryzen 2000 series and 9th-generation Intel Core processors.

After some delay, Intel finally acknowledged and addressed the issue in its forums. Here’s the complete message they shared:

Official Intel Message:
"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."

This statement suggests that Intel was already aware of the issue but hadn’t prioritized optimizing the performance—until now. Intel promises to broaden its optimization efforts across various configurations, offering hope for a solution. However, no specific timeline was provided for the release of these updates.

Intel’s improvements will primarily focus on driver updates since, hardware-wise, it is already capable of competing with previous-gen rivals in the latest games. It’s surprising to see performance issues on the Arc B580 or B570 with Intel’s own older CPUs, especially when current-gen Intel and AMD chips don’t exhibit these problems.

With the forthcoming patches, there’s optimism that Intel might better compete with AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. Still, this doesn’t necessarily mean immediate success in the GPU market. The limited availability of Intel Arc Battlemage GPUs has left them mostly unseen in the budget GPU sector, hindering their competitive edge.

[Source: Intel]