Intel tests show its Arc A750 GPU beating an RTX 3060, if only you could buy one - Ars Technica

In a video and accompanying post today, company representatives Ryan Shrout and Tom Peterson compared the upcoming Arc A750 card to Nvidia's RTX 3060 in a few dozen DirectX12 and Vulkan games They demonstrated that the card is usually able to keep up with the most popular member of the RTX 3000 GPU family.

Of course, there is one important metric in which Intel's Arc GPU can't compete with Nvidia's: The RTX 3060 is a graphics card you can go out and buy and install in your PC today, and the Arc A750 isn't.

The company categorizes games using one of three performance tiers: Tier 1 is newer games using modern APIs that have been specifically optimized for Arc GPUs, Tier 2 is games that use modern DirectX12 and Vulkan APIs but don't have any Arc-specific optimizations, and Tier 3 is older DirectX and OpenGL titles.

All of the games in today's comparison are Tier 1 or Tier 2 titles, but Intel says Arc's pricing will be determined by its competitiveness in Tier 3 games.

Because Arc struggles so much with games in this third tier, it could mean that the A750 will come in substantially below the RTX 3060's official MSRP of $329 (its current street price based on a cursory non-scientific check of Amazon and Newegg is closer to $400).

A card that performs like an RTX 3060 in newer games while being priced more like an RTX 3050 or 1650 could be attractive for some bargain hunters, regardless of the other teething issues Arc is having.