Discussion Intel ARC Battle Mage owners thread. iGPU counts too.

[DAPUNISHER]

Build Specifications -
Ryzen 5600X3D
Thermalright peerless assassin 120 SE
2x16GB DDR4 CL18 3600MTs
ASRock B550M-itx/ac
Silicon Power 1TB gen 4 nvme
Onix Odyssey ARC B580 12GB
CoolerMaster nr200
Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Hisense 4K 144Hz Freesync premium pro gaming TV

EDIT: To invoke the old meme: Will it play Crysis? No, no it won't. At least not acceptably. Buy the remaster if you want to play on ARC.

First thing I played was Spiderman Miles Morales. Ray tracing seems to be nerfed on battle mage. I'd seen reviews where it crashed or had other issues using RT in a number of titles. In this game, performance with it turned on is not consistent and tanks hard at times. Drivers should get it sorted out as the weeks go by.

1440 custom settings (no motion blur, chromatic ab, film grain, depth of field or any of that stuff) RT off, with XeSS ultra quality and FSR frame gen was the best blend of visuals and performance for my taste. High refresh 120+ fps most of the time, VRAM used was at most 9-10GB. I will try 4K XeSS quality and balanced next.

The 5600X3D fed it well. I have Miles fully maxed out on powers and abilities, so I can swing super fast near the streets. I did not have a single problem. Played about an hour.

They fixed Tomb Raider 2013. Refreshing to not need DXVK to get good frame pacing. 4k max settings ran great and I played for about 4 hours since I have never finished the game and intend to do so. Spends most of the time in the 80-90s fps but hits the frame cap I set of 120 indoors a lot. This game has no business looking as good as it does and only using 2GB VRAM at 4K max.

I'll try Assassins Creed Odyssey on the B580 Odyssey next. It was a mess without DXVK on the A750.

They have not fixed Arkham Knight. It still crashes on launch. Bummer. DXVK to the rescue, but it's been years now, fix it already.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Onix Odyssey ARC B580 12GB

How's the build quality? Temps? Noise?

This game has no business looking as good as it does and only using 2GB VRAM at 4K max.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The Onix Odyssey is a solidly built card with a good metal backplate. Pic is from Newegg



It's over 2.5 slots thick. Runs quiet and the highest temp I have seen with afterburner was mid 60s. I need to add another case fan. There is only one at the moment.

3DMark can't parse the system info; combo is too rare?

 

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Those scores are with launchers and browser open. It is a fresh install of win 11 pro 24H2 fully updated. No overclocks or any other benchmarkers tweaks.

Tomb Raider note: It allocates almost 4GB but only used half that at most.

 

[IEC]

I managed to snag a Intel Limited Edition B580 when it went into stock at BH Photo an hour or so ago. I’ll update when I get it.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Arkham Knight is fine at 4K custom with DXVK (a couple of game works settings grayed out)

OG Crysis is broken badly. Need DXVK to get it to launch. Game hitches and stutters horribly. Not going to bother looking for playable settings this time. Buy the remake if you want to play on Battle Mage.

AC: Syndicate - They fixed it last year according to an Intel employee in their forums. I agree. It plays as good or better than it does with Vulcan. 4K custom settings, some maxed, it stays over 60FPS most of the time. It has a problem I have noticed on all 3 ARC cards I have used. They struggle with long draw distances in many games. It's fully playable though; VRR keeps the dips smoothed out.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down - No luck with DXVK or DxWrapper. Never gets past the video card test screen. If someone else finds a fix LMK please.

 

[igor_kavinski]

If someone else finds a fix LMK please.

I think it can work in WinXP running inside VMplayer with guest tools installed. Don't think Steam will run inside XP. Gotta have the setup files for DF:BHD.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I think it can work in WinXP running inside VMplayer with guest tools installed. Don't think Steam will run inside XP. Gotta have the setup files for DF:BHD.

It's GOG which makes it easier. But it's too much hassle. ARC just isn't for retro gaming. But who knows, once you start experimenting, maybe your code monkey skillz will prevail.

 

[igor_kavinski]

But who knows, once you start experimenting, maybe your code monkey skillz will prevail.

I wish I could hack games through code. But I'm pretty curious so I will definitely give it a try by poking and prodding through the various files. The most fun I've ever had was changing the physics of the taxi cab by changing values in a file in the GTA3 folder. Suddenly, any taxi would go so fast that the game would be unable to draw fast enough and all I would see is grey backgrounds as they slowly filled in with textures. And hitting anything, even a frickin' tank, would cause it to combust!

 

[DigDog]

The 5600X3D fed it well.

was watching the 5090 benches by GN and realized we need to move to a 2-CPU solution, with 1 unit having 4-6-8 cores purely for clockspeeds, and a thermally-separate (i.e a second socket & cooler)unit with 10+ efficiency cores.

i have seen that LTSC exists for W11 as well; may considering installing it when i get back next week .. since Stalker 2 won't run without it ..

"CONSIDER" because my current install is a bit of a work of art, don't know if i fancy having to spend yet more hours trying to convince Windows that *i am*, in fact, the Administrator.

 

[igor_kavinski]

"CONSIDER" because my current install is a bit of a work of art, don't know if i fancy having to spend yet more hours trying to convince Windows that *i am*, in fact, the Administrator.

Or just get a cheap SSD, swap out the current one temporarily and use the Win11 SSD only when you need to, like playing Stalker 2 or some other game that needs Win11.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Using presentmon in Spiderman MM the GPU is waiting on the CPU a lot. VRR, FG, and upscaling make it smooth and playable but it ain't good a 5600X3D is holding it back that much.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Using presentmon in Spiderman MM the GPU is waiting on the CPU a lot. VRR, FG, and upscaling make it smooth and playable but it ain't good a 5600X3D is holding it back that much.

Try disabling SMT. Does it improve things?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Try disabling SMT. Does it improve things?

It's almost maxing the CPU out, taking away threads is not going to help.

 

[igor_kavinski]

It's almost maxing the CPU out, taking away threads is not going to help.

The theory is that the fewer threads left will have more cache available to them which might increase their throughput. Each thread will also get more memory bandwidth.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The theory is that the fewer threads left will have more cache available to them which might increase their throughput. Each thread will also get more memory bandwidth.

That hypothesis failed miserably. It'd freeze for a full 2-3 seconds trying to swing around. Huge stutter and freeze going into a fight. Look at the frame time graph; it's a horror movie. Threads matter, it is that simple.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Threads matter, it is that simple.

Not that I want to torture you but could you do it one more time with SMT and RT both disabled? Does that make the game playable/smoother?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Not that I want to torture you but could you do it one more time with SMT and RT both disabled? Does that make the game playable/smoother?

RT was already disabled. Same street along Central Park swinging near the ground with SMT.



Standing still in an alley with a citizen wanting to high five me



Without the hardware Oodle Kraken decompressor on the PS5 the CPU is pulling that load. Compound that with the driver overhead and 6 threads ain't cutting it.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Thanks! Very illuminating. Guess they are making the most of SMT on the PS5 too.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks! Very illuminating. Guess they are making the most of SMT on the PS5 too.

It really speaks to how much that hardware decompressor, streamlined OS, low API overhead, and no ARC playing hungry hungry hippos, takes the load off of the CPU.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Wish Microsoft would enable a game mode in the OS too, with all kinds of security and virtualization overhead removed so people with limited cores can make the most of their hardware.

 

[coercitiv]

Wish Microsoft would enable a game mode in the OS too, with all kinds of security and virtualization overhead removed

Yeah, and they should enable a flag in the OS so the malware knows the system is in game mode and does not compromise the system.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Yeah, and they should enable a flag in the OS so the malware knows the system is in game mode and does not compromise the system.

Would realistically happen to gamers who get their games from warez sites, in which case their Windows is inactivated or pirated and thus M$ doesn't need to care.

 

[coercitiv]

Would realistically happen to gamers who get their games from warez sites, in which case their Windows is inactivated or pirated and thus M$ doesn't need to care.

Gamers who get their stuff from warez websites don't need a "game mode" for more performance, disabling DRM is a boon for Windows gaming performance

 

[igor_kavinski]

Gamers who get their stuff from warez websites don't need a "game mode" for more performance, disabling DRM is a boon for Windows gaming performance

Nuh uh. Not getting off that easy. Citations please