Preface
After more than two years, the DLC "Elden Ring: Shadow of the Golden Tree", the masterpiece "Elden Ring" in the hearts of many players, has finally been released, and many games that were originally scheduled to be released in June have jumped tickets to make way for this "real king". The new boss structure, larger play area, more detailed gameplay design, and more complete storyline can be said to have once again activated the enthusiasm of players.
With the release of "The Shadow of the Golden Tree", the Blue Halberd once again brought a co-branded graphics card, this time we got the IntelArc A770 Photon 16G OC Elden Ring Golden Tree Shadow co-branded graphics card (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring Co-branded Model"). This time, we're focusing on how well this graphics card performs in Elden Ring. Of course, regular performance, creation and other tests are also indispensable to see how the current Intel Arc graphics card performs.
Explanation of graphics card specifications
As part of the Arc family of graphics cards, the Intel Arc A770 is built on the Intel Xe HPG microarchitecture and features the Intel XMX AI Acceleration Engine, a graphics pipeline optimized for DirectX 12 Ultimate, a new Xe Media Engine designed to accelerate current and future content creation workloads, an Xe graphics engine with DisplayPort 2.0-defined UHBR10, and support for Intel Deep Link technology.
From the point of view of specifications, the specifications of Arc A770 are quite good, using a full-blooded version of the ACM-G10 core, based on TSMC 6nm manufacturing process, built-in 32 Xe-Core engines, 32 ray tracing units, 512 XMX engines, and 512 XVE vector engines, etc., with a core base frequency of 2.1GHz.
In terms of video memory configuration, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Fa Ring co-branded model in our hands is the top version, using 16GB GDDR6 video memory, with 256bit video memory bit width and 512GB/s video memory bandwidth. Compared with the counter-aligned RTX 3060 Ti, the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring has obvious advantages in memory capacity and memory bandwidth.
Technical explanations
Before introducing this graphics card, let's review the technology related to Arc discrete graphics cards, which is the fundamental factor that determines performance.
Xe HPG architecture
Intel Arc A770采用了英特尔Xe HPG架构，支持DX12 Ultimate、硬件光线追踪、可变刷新率VRS、XeSS超级采样、Xe媒体引擎、PCIe 4.0等特性。
The basic components of the Xe HPG architecture include the Xe core, the Xe media engine, the Xe display engine, etc., let's take a look at them one by one. First, each Xe core contains 16 vector engines, the former is mainly used to compute floating-point or integer operations, and the latter is mainly used to accelerate convolution and matrix operations that are common in AI applications. Each of the four Xe cores is a rendering slice and is a very important part of the Xe HPG architecture, supporting dedicated hardware ray tracing units for DX12 Ultimate, Microsoft DXR, and Vulkan RT. Each slice is also equipped with four hardware ray tracing accelerators for real-time ray tracing at the hardware level.
XE Media Engine
At the same time, the Xe HPG architecture also integrates the Xe media engine, which can support up to 8K60 12-bit HDR decoding and 8K 10-bit HDR encoding, thanks to the Xe media engine, Intel Arc is the world's first graphics card to support the AV1 codec. AV1 is one of the most outstanding and free video encoders in the industry in the future, and video creation applications such as DaVinci Resolve Studio, HandBrake and Filmora are now optimized for Arc graphics cards, supporting intel Arc GPU hardware acceleration and AV1 video encoding and export for clearer, higher quality, smaller video encoding.
XE Display Engine
The Arc Series is equipped with an Xe display engine that supports DisplayPort 2.0 definition UHBR10, and the Arc A770 has a total of 4 display channels, supporting HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4a, and is also compatible with DisplayPort 2.0 10G. It can output 2 8K resolution 60Hz HDR signals or 4 4K resolution 120Hz HDR signals, and even at 2K resolution, it can also meet the 360Hz ultra-high refresh rate.
Deep-Link
Intel Deep Link technology is Intel's technology that leverages the power of Intel's processors and graphics cards to maximize performance for gaming, streaming, creation, and more. Whether it's a desktop or a laptop, you can pair a compatible Intel Core processor with Intel Arc graphics.
XeSS oversampling technology
Finally, let's talk about Intel's XeSS supersampling technology, the implementation principle of XeSS is similar to DLSS or FSR, using the XMX engine in the graphics card to achieve matrix acceleration, first reducing the resolution of the game screen for rendering and pre-processing, and then processing by AI to improve the resolution of the picture, and finally achieve the effect of improving both the resolution and the game experience. Officially, in certain scenarios, it can bring 2 times the frame rate increase for high-quality games.
Graphics card exterior viewing
The first time I got the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded graphics card, I was shocked by its packaging, it uses custom packaging, and the front is the cover of the Elden Ring Golden Tree Shadow DLC, which is quite handsome, and game fans must like it.
In the lower right corner is the regular model display, and we got an Intel Arc A770 graphics card.
In the lower left corner of the box is a display of Intel Arc graphics card related technologies, such as XeSS super resolution technology.
Even the back of the box is a screenshot of the game of Elden Ring, and the bottom is a detailed description of the features and configuration requirements of this graphics card.
After opening the package, the card is finally revealed, and it has the same black design as the regular version of the Arc A770 Photon, but with the addition of Elden Ring's signature gold accents, and the surrounding bevel texture is decorated, the whole card shows a sense of understated luxury.
Blue Halberd obviously put a lot of thought into the design of this graphics card, there are a lot of game features on the graphics card, the side of the graphics card is printed with the Elden Ring Golden Tree Shadow Logo, and there are retro gold pattern decorations next to it, which is quite exquisite.
The workmanship is quite meticulous, and if you are a fan of old man rings, I believe you will definitely like this design.
Returning to the appearance of the graphics card, there are also three 90mm diameter and 1.5mm thick sail wing fans on the front, which can provide enough airflow. In addition, these three sail wing fans are also equipped with intelligent start-stop technology, which is not only energy-saving and silent, but also greatly improves heat dissipation efficiency.
If you look closely at the cooling fan, the "GUNNIR" and "Elden Ring" logos are printed in the middle of the fan, which is quite recognizable. At the same time, each fan has 11 blades and is equipped with dual ball bearings, which greatly improves the durability of the fan.
The back of the graphics card is equipped with a metal backplate, which not only helps prevent the PCB from bending, but also significantly improves heat dissipation efficiency. The focus of this collaboration is the design of the backplate, which is covered in the Elden Ring Golden Tree Spectre, making it an ideal choice for game lovers and collectors alike.
There are also cut-out windows on the edges of the backplate that allow you to see the PCB inside, which is designed to further improve heat dissipation and allow the core to output full blood.
Looking at the side of the graphics card, the most eye-catching should be the brand logo light of the blue halberd, even if the power is not on, you can clearly see the looming blue halberdLogo.
This brand logo light will light up when the graphics card is powered on, which is quite eye-catching. In addition, this logo light is not only for display, it also has a detection function. It will flash blue light during normal startup, and red light if the external power supply fails.
On the other side of the graphics card is the "intel ARC" logo, and a gold ribbon extends all the way to the other side, with the blue halberd logo light, adding a touch of brightness to the minimalist look.
In terms of power supply, it is equipped with dual 8-pin power connectors, which is more than enough to drive this 285W TDP graphics card.
On the left and right sides of the graphics card are a whole row of dense heat dissipation fins, and you can vaguely see the internal heat pipes, which must be quite good for this heat dissipation specification.
There is also the gold finger of the graphics card at the bottom, which is also one of the power supplies. And it's worth mentioning that the motherboard must support the Resizable BAR feature to fully unleash the full performance of the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded graphics card.
In terms of video interface, it adopts the current mainstream 3 DP 2.0 + 1 HDMI 2.0, which supports up to 8K video output. This specification has been able to meet the needs of the vast majority of players.
In addition, from this angle, the thickness of the graphics card is about 2.5 PCIe slots, which is just the right amount compared to the size of other graphics cards.
Introduction to graphics card teardown
It's relatively easy to disassemble this graphics card, as long as you remove the screws on the backplate, you can separate the graphics card heatsink from the PCB.
The front of the PCB is quite exquisite, and the interface, power supply, core, video memory, and auxiliary power supply positions on it are quite reasonable and regular, and they are properly produced by large manufacturers.
The PCB components are made by the machine using advanced SMT placement technology, which improves the durability, stability, accuracy and aesthetics of the whole PCB.
The chip in the middle of the PCB is the full-blooded ACM-G10 core, which has a core area of 406mm² and a transistor count of 21.7 billion.
The GPU core is surrounded by 16GB GDDR6 video memory particles, produced by Samsung, the video memory bit width is 256bit, which can be said to be quite conscientious, you must know the RTX 4060 of the old Huang family next door, the bit width has been cut to a miserable 128bit.
In terms of power supply scale, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model adopts a 6+4 phase power supply design scheme.
On the left side is the power supply of the video memory, and the DrMos chips are SM7302 and MPSD8694 respectively.
On the right is the 6-phase GPU core power supply, using MPS's DrMos chip: MP86956, the maximum output current value of a single is 70A, which can be said to be no weaker than other mainstream graphics cards.
As for the PWM main control, there is an MPS MP2979A on the front PCB, which supports up to 6-phase, three-channel power supply control.
There is also an MPS M2940A on the back. This is also a commonly used material for VCC power supply on high-end motherboards, which shows that Blue Halberd is really willing to pile up materials for this graphics card.
There is also a BE2106 chip with a blue halberd logo on the PCB, in fact, it is an RGB control chip, and the various color indicators you see rely on it.
The power supply interface gives dual 8pins, and a filter is designed at the external power supply to ensure the stability of the power supply of the graphics card.
Continuing to disassemble, what catches your eye is the heatsink of this graphics card - ICICLE multi-dimensional cooling system, the front is a huge metal base, and the top is a thick silicone grease, which can effectively reduce the core heat.
The whole radiator is divided into two sections, and the heat dissipation gasket is arranged on the electronic components such as video memory, inductance, and MOS tube.
The heat sink is equipped with 5 nickel-plated pure copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6mm, and with a nickel-plated metal base, there is no doubt about the heat dissipation capacity.
Active cooling is three 90mm diameter sail wing fans, the fan blades adopt a unique straight blade design shape, which can ensure that the blade pressure is equalized, and the air supply from the blade tip to the middle of the blade and the blade root is evenly distributed, maximizing the air volume of the fan, and at the same time improving noise control.
Introduction to the testbed
After reading the appearance and interior, it's time to enter the testing link. In order to test this graphics card, we also sacrificed a lot of top-level hardware, the processor uses the flagship Intel i9-13900K, the motherboard is not bad, ROG MAXIMUS Z790 HERO, plus two 16GB DDR5-6400MHz C32 memory, can definitely release the full performance of the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded graphics card.
Other hardware configurations are as follows:
Control panel explained
Before officially getting on the machine, I still want to introduce the Arc control panel launched by Intel, which can be easily called through the combination of Alt+I shortcut keys. In terms of drivers, we are using the latest version of the driver, version number 31.0.101.5592. The version number is a lot newer, and Intel is worthy of praise in this regard, often updating the driver in a week or two, solving various problems, bringing stronger performance, and even many new games are launched, and the driver support can be updated on the same day.
With that said, let's take a look at the Intel Arc Control Panel. It's still quite feature-rich, with built-in driver checks & updates, a game library, a performance monitor, and a studio.
In the game library, the most recently run games on the computer will be displayed, and different settings can be optimized for different games.
The performance monitor is more abundant, first of all, you can see the operation of each component of the Arc graphics card, including GPU frequency, temperature, voltage, VRAM temperature, fan speed, and renderer utilization.
On top of that, you'll also be able to overclock your graphics card, which we might have had to do with a small airplane or other third-party application before, but now you can just open Intel's driver control panel, a favorite among geek gamers.
The fourth menu bar, Display, is obviously for multi-screen users, where you can easily set the display parameters, whether it is color, brightness, refresh rate, etc.
The studio is actually for content creation, the broadcast is for the live stream, the capture is for the recorded video, and the highlights are for recording the video according to the game situation, and the final camera choice is that if you have an external camera, you can also directly adjust the parameters in the driver, which is more convenient and fast.
Theoretical performance test
Before starting the test, it is the international practice to have a basic understanding of the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model in GPU-Z. From the point of view of specifications, the Boost frequency of this graphics card can go up to 2400MHz, the TBP is limited to 285W, and the video memory is given an astonishing 16GB.
Focusing on the theoretical performance of this graphics card, we used 3DMark for testing, and measured that in the Fire Strike series scene, which represents the performance of DirectX 11 games, the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model performed well, leading the RTX 3060 Ti by 11% in the 2K resolution Fire Strike Extreme, and in the Time Spy environment in the DX12 environment, The new graphics card still has a big lead, with a lead of around 13% in the Time Spy Extreme category.
Even the pressure ray tracing project Port Royal, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring collaboration is also good, with a score of 7186 slightly ahead of the RTX 3060 Ti.
Super resolution technology is also the focus of many gamers, after all, the N card has DLSS, and the A card has FSR, both of which can significantly improve the gaming experience. I card players don't have to worry, XeSS technology can also achieve a more detailed picture and smoother experience.
In actual measurements, under the commonly used 1080P gear, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model only has 50 FPS when the XeSS is turned off, and it is directly increased by 40 FPS after it is turned on, which can stabilize the operation of 1080P 90+ FPS. At 2K, if XeSS is enabled, the frame rate can go up to 63 FPS, which is a double increase compared to the performance without XeSS, which is quite strong! 4K is a bit stretched, but considering the positioning and price of this graphics card, 2K is its main battlefield.
Game performance testing
The game test session, first of all, of course, is the old man's ring. However, the Old Man's Ring is known to lock 60 FPS, and here we unlocked this cap. Under the measured 1080P, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Law Ring co-branded model can run smoothly at 108 FPS under the highest quality image quality, and the 2K resolution is not weak, and it can still achieve 83 FPS performance.
Immediately after that, we tested Far Cry 6, and the actual experience was good. At the highest quality, both 2K and 1080P run smoothly, and the 1% Low frame is not low, both above 60 FPS.
Try FPS shooters again, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring collaboration is even stronger, with 135 FPS performance at 1080P resolution and close to 90 FPS experience at 2K resolution. Overall, if you lower the picture quality by one notch, you can even play triple-A at an e-sports level.
Then there is the stressful "Metro Departure: Enhanced Edition", which I thought would be defeated in this game by the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring collaboration, after all, without the blessing of XeSS. However, at 2K resolution, this graphics card can still reach 66 FPS, and there is no problem with smooth gameplay.
What about games with XeSS? Although "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" is an old game, it also supports XeSS technology, measured at 1080P, when XeSS is not turned on, the game frame rate can run to 116 FPS, and if the XeSS performance file is turned on, the game frame rate will be increased by 40 FPS, to 156 FPS, which is quite amazing.
It's about the same at 2K resolution,The game frame rate is 84 FPS when you don't turn on XeSS,It's already able to run smoothly,After turning on XeSS,The game performance has been improved to varying degrees,Under the performance file,It can already meet the 2K 120Hz high brush experience。
Let's take a look at the performance of XeSS in "Cyberpunk 2077", under 1080P, without turning on XeSS, the game frame rate is 78 FPS, after turning on XeSS various modes, the frame rate of the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model has been improved, in the XeSS performance file, compared with turning off XeSS, the frame rate has increased by more than 25 frames, and even in the balanced file, the frame rate can be increased by about 20 frames.
At 2K resolution, XeSS technology is even more advantageous. When you don't turn on XeSS, the game frame rate is not enough to reach the level of 60 FPS, and after turning on the XeSS performance file, the game frame rate is visibly improved, and the performance of 83 FPS is no longer smooth and can be described, and it almost touched the threshold of quasi-high brushing.
Many players may be worried about the degradation of the picture quality after turning on XeSS, but here we have also taken screenshots of the game in different gears, and from the naked eye, the image quality is almost identical. In the case of text, patterns, and other scenarios, XeSS uses AI to render low-resolution images into high-resolution images, so there is a bonus in terms of clarity, and sometimes it is even clearer than the original image quality.
At present, there are 40 games that support XeSS technology, and more and more games will support XeSS in the future.
Content creation testing
Next up is the content creation test, after all, 16GB of video memory and excellent performance can also shine in the creative world. First, let's take a look at the overall user experience performance, using PCMark 10 Extended to test the performance of the PC based on real-world applications and activities.
The test results are as follows, the two graphics cards are evenly matched in terms of overall scores, but some test sub-items have different performances, such as digital content creation, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model with large video memory is obviously more advantageous, with a lead of about 26%!
Looking at the daily office scene, we chose UL Procyon's Office Productivity test, and the actual test shows that it is far ahead, and the maximum lead can go to about 10%.
As for image editing and video editing, we used PugetBench for testing, which can simulate the actual operation of Adobe software such as Photoshop and Premiere, and can more accurately reflect the actual performance of the two graphics cards. The measured Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model is almost comprehensively leading in Adobe's software, with a lead range of 4-6%.
AV1 encoding performance test
Another highlight of this generation of Arc graphics cards is that they can accelerate content creation, and as the first GPU to support AV1 encoding, it's not an exaggeration to call it a content creation artifact. AV1 is also expected to become the next mainstream video encoding technology. Faster encoding speed and higher quality streaming performance, so that more and more editing software and video websites favor it, such as the familiar da Vinci, Jianying, B station, etc. have supported AV1 encoding and decoding, and AV1 will become a new trend in the future.
In the actual test, an 8K project file was exported to H.265 and AV1 formats respectively, and when the AV1 hardware acceleration codec function was used, the time was nearly half a minute faster than the RTX 3060's H.265, even if it was in the same H.265 format, the performance of the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model was also better.
XMX Matrix Engine AI Performance Testing
As mentioned above, the Arc GPU's built-in XMX matrix engine can take advantage of XeSS technology to boost game frame rates. The reason for this is that the AI is used to fill the frame, which has to mention the focus of this test. Thanks to the powerful AI functions and algorithms of the XMX matrix engine, it can perform 128 FP16/BF16 operations, 256 INT8 operations, and 512 INT4/INT2 operations per clock cycle. This also means that the Intel Arc A770 has decent performance in AI and can be used for high-throughput matrix multiplication calculations.
Without further ado, let's test it with UL Procyon, which already has an AI Wensheng diagram test. Under the SD 1.5 model, the generation speed of the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring is 9.194 seconds per image, and the test score is 679, which is not bad.
Switching to the more stressful SDXL model, the generation speed became 56.375 seconds per graph, and the total test score was 665 points. Overall not bad.
However, the above is only a theoretical test after all, so let's actually test it to see how Intel's Arc graphics card performs on AI drawing? We used the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model to generate a 512x512 image using the Stable Diffusion WebUI, which took only 3.7 seconds to complete, and the picture quality is quite high, and the video memory occupation is only about 5GB.
Then we also tried the high-definition repair function, which is to enlarge the original 512x512 picture to 768x768, in the case of using the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model, it only takes 16 seconds, and the video memory occupied during the period is only 5GB.
Finally, we also tried larger resolution images. Use the SDXL model to generate a 968×968 image with 20 iteration steps. The measured generation time is only 20 seconds, and the 9.6GB video memory usage obviously does not touch the upper limit of 16GB, if you want to generate high-resolution images, the large video memory of the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring is obviously more suitable.
You may be wondering how the N-card performs? Here, too, we used UL Procyon's AIGC test to evaluate the AI performance of the two graphics cards. The test project was selected as UL Procyon's Microsoft Windows ML version, which included float32, float16 and integer.
In fact, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model is on par with the RTX 3060 Ti. Even in the integer project, there is a slight lead, about 7% stronger. If you want to get started in the AIGC field, the 16GB Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring collaboration model is indeed a more cost-effective choice.
Overclocking experience
I've seen the AI performance test, and I'll show you some of the geek gamer's favorites - overclocking! Above we mentioned that the frequency of the graphics card can be easily adjusted within the Intel Arc controller to achieve one-click overclocking. By default, the Time Spy score of the Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring is 13405 points.
Then, when we unlocked the power and temperature walls, the voltage offset increased by 30mV and the performance acceleration increased by 50%. Under this setting, the Time Spy score can be increased to 14212 points, which is almost 1000 points, and the performance is still quite good. However, how much overclocking can be exceeded depends on the physique of the graphics card, and ordinary players have a good performance release by default.
Oven & Power Test
At the end of the evaluation, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model was baked for 15 minutes, the Furmark doughnut was set to 1920 x 1080 resolution, and the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring co-branded model could be stabilized at 2050-2100MHz throughout the whole process, and the PL1 power consumption was 195W.
Looking at its GPU core temperature, the highest is only 65°C, even GDDR6, a big heater, with the blessing of icicle's multi-dimensional cooling system, even lower than the core 1°C, 64°C performance is also quite excellent. Compared with the performance of the RTX 3060 Ti next door at every seventy or eighty degrees, it is definitely far ahead.
Review Summary
The Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring Collaboration meets the expectations of game fans and DIY enthusiasts in terms of visuals and workmanship. The well-designed game IP packaging and full of "Elden Ring" elements make this graphics card not only a high-performance gaming weapon, but also an electronic figure for old man ring game fans!
In terms of performance, gamers who are familiar with Intel Arc graphics cards should know about it. Intel has been updating the drivers since the release of this graphics card, and each update always brings a big performance boost. Without ray tracing, this graphics card can run most of the 3A masterpieces smoothly at 2K, 1080P resolutions, even if ray tracing is turned on, with the blessing of XeSS technology, there is no problem. In addition, the 16GB of large video memory also makes this graphics card have a fighting power in the field of AI, and even brings epoch-making AV1 codec technology, excellent production performance and AI performance, so that gamers also have a cost-effective choice.
Finally, the price is the price, the Blue Halberd Intel Arc A770 Elden Fahuan co-branded model has been put on sale on the e-commerce platform, priced at 2149 yuan. As a graphics card in the early 2K, it not only has outstanding gaming capabilities, but also has 16GB of large-capacity video memory, and supports AV1 encoding hardware acceleration, and the cost performance is not ordinarily high. If you're looking for a good mainstream graphics card in the near future, then this Intel Arc A770 Elden Ring collaboration will be a good choice, excellent performance to help your game entertainment and production creation, as a perfect score of IGN co-branded card, also make it more memorable.