Intel Arc Alchemist 256 EU Mobile GPU Shows RX 580-Like Performance

[harlan4096]

A quick look into Arc Alchemist with 256 EUs

Hardware detective Benchleaks discovered two new Geekbench 5 benchmarks showcasing a mysterious Alder Lake notebook packing a Core i5-12500H CPU and a dedicated Intel Arc Alchemist Xe GPU equipped with 256 EUs and 6GB of VRAM. According to the OpenCL scores, performance appears to be in the ballpark of AMD's Radeon RX 580 or Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1650 Super.

This GPU appears to be part of Intel's new DG2 mobile lineup, as shared in this leak here. One of the leading GPU configurations shown in the leak (SKU 3) reportedly has 256 EUs, and a memory capacity anywhere between 4 to 8GB of VRAM, the same configuration shown in these Geekbench benchmarks.

Furthermore, the DG2 leak showed five GPU configurations, the top trim featuring 512 EUs, the second configuration with 384 EUs, a third SKU with 256 EUs, followed by models with 128 EUs, and 96 EUs. So it appears the 256 EU version will be one of Intel's mid-range GPUs for the mobile market.
 

[GB5 GPU] Unknown GPUCPU: Intel Core i5-12500H (12C 16T)Min/Max/Avg: 3756/4480/4430 MHzCodename: Alder LakeCPUID: 906A2 (GenuineIntel)GPU: Intel XeAPI: Open CLScore: 46540, -67.3% vs RTX 3070VRAM: 6.33 GBhttps://t.co/VIzDT97zUzFebruary 26, 2022

Benchleaks shared two OpenCL Geekbench benchmarks featuring the same notebook; the first showcases 46,540 points, while the second result shows slightly diminished results featuring 45,483 points.

For comparison, several AMD and Nvidia's older GPUs fill in the same performance ballpark in Geekbench 5's OpenCL browser, including the Radeon RX 480, RX 580, and RX 5600M as well as the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and GTX 1080 Max-Q. So from a compute perspective, it appears Intel's Arc Alchemist mobile GPU with 256 EUs isn't that powerful by modern-day standards.

But keep in mind, this is Geekbench 5 and a non-gaming test, so take these results with a grain of salt as Geekbench 5 is famous for having wildly inaccurate real-world performance results.

But if we only take Geekbench 5 into account, Intel could be in the wrong spot, as its mid-range mobile GPUs behave more like entry-level GPUs of the modern era. However, we should wait for a full review to pass judgment. It's essential to see which market segment Intel will be targeting with its DG2 lineup. If it turns out that Intel's "top of the line" 512 EU variant isn't competing with the likes of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 mobile or RTX 3080 mobile and is instead only competing with mid-range chips like the RTX 3060. Intel's "mid-range" 256 EU trim could perform well as an authentic entry-level product.
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