Product test

Intel’s Arc A750 has burgeoned into a decent budget graphics card

19/6/2023

It’s already been eight months since Intel released dedicated graphics cards. At launch, the Arc A770 and A750 were barely usable due to driver issues. Now, it’s a different story.

Intel’s Arc graphics cards suck. At least, that was the verdict when they hit the shelves last October. Thanks to driver updates, things are now looking up. The smaller Arc A750 in particular is worth considering if you’re on a tight budget.

Graphics card

EUR323,76

Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition

8 GB

Gaming with the A750

I slot the A750 into an NUC 13 Extreme Raptor Canyon. I don’t want to just run benchmarks – I want to spend a week working and gaming with the system. To do so, I’ll have to dial back my expectations a little. I usually play games in 1440p resolution, but since the A750’s performance isn’t up to that, I have to make do with 1080p.

For my review, I play the same games that I played during my review of the NUC: Anno 1800, Cyberpunk 2077 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. On top of that, I test ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077. In this chart, you’ll see the frames per second (fps) achieved by the A750 in 1080p resolution compared to that of various cards. Because of the amount of space on the NUC, I wasn’t able to test many models. A particularly interesting comparison is the one with the RTX 3060 Ti.

The system runs on Windows 11 in version 22H2 (22621.1413). Aside from activating XMP in the BIOS, I leave everything on default, with Resizable BAR enabled. For the graphics card, I use the latest driver version available at the time of the article’s publication. I run each benchmark three times, recording the frames per second and taking the best result. For the games, I use the highest possible presets. Otherwise, I leave everything at default except for the resolution. I don’t activate DLSS, FSR or Xess.

As you can see, the Arc A750 performs worst. That was to be expected. Even so, it’s a respectable result. Currently, the card costs 269 francs/euros. The cheapest RTX 3060 Ti available right now costs 332 francs/euros (both prices as of 19 June 2023). That’s 28 per cent more. In 1080p resolution, however, the A750 is only 23 per cent behind the RTX 3060 Ti. The gap between the A750 and the RTX 4070 Ti is even wider. The latter costs 208 per cent more than the A750, but «only» offers 143 per cent more fps.

If ray tracing is enabled, the A750 can’t compete with the others. Cyberpunk 2077 is unplayable at 25 fps in ray-tracing mode. However, if I set the Xe Super Sampling upscaling technology to Balanced, I get 49 fps – enough for me to explore the Night City.

Having tested three games, my sample size is admittedly small. Even so, it does reveal a certain trend. Other reviews, such as those of Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Techradar chime with my own experience with the card.

I play some more titles, including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Hogwarts Legacy. When playing the former, the frame rate is around 50 fps in 1080p resolution at maximum details. With the latter, I can even get frame rates beyond 70 fps. Of course, you also need a decent CPU for that. My NUC has an i9-13900K. However, even with an i5-12600K or Ryzen 5800X3D, you should be able to achieve similar fps.

Working with the A750

In everyday use, I don’t notice any major difference compared to my PC with AMD Ryzen 5950X and Radeon RX 6800 XT. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere don’t feel any slower than usual when I’m working. I edit RAW images in Photoshop and short UHD videos in Premiere. Running the UL Procyon benchmark confirms my subjective impression, with the test not revealing any significant differences compared to the theoretically much more powerful cards.

Verdict: good if you’re strapped for cash

With the Arc A750, Intel is now offering a decent graphics card for anyone looking to make do with a modest budget. Who would have thought such a thing possible when the cards were released eight months ago? Sure, you won’t be reaching any new heights with the A750 when gaming. But with the graphics card market still on the pricey side, it’s my pick for budgets under 300 francs/euros.

If you’ve got more room in your budget, the RTX 3060 Ti is the better choice. As for those with even more cash to spare, there’s the RTX 4060 Ti. It may only be ten per cent faster than the RTX 3060 Ti, but it has features such as DLSS 3.0, and is more power efficient. Depending on the model, the price has dropped considerably since its release.

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