Intel Arc A380 GPU reviews: like sitting in 'minefield, playing drunk'

I'm sure you can tell that the tech press isn't happy with what Intel has done with what they're calling the "launch" of their new desktop Arc Alchemist GPUs -- first out of the gate is the new Intel Arc A380 -- a total mess of a launch.

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Intel is on a roll with its absolute disaster of GPU launch with marketing campaigns shilling videos on LinusTechTips, where it's all smiles... but the real reviewers, they say the Intel Arc A380 discrete GPU is "like living in the middle of a minefield, while playing drunk".

While Intel is bringing suitcases of cash and some Intel Arc A770 graphics cards to YouTubers, traditional tech media that has been around before YouTube was even a word, have been left out of the cheques and cards. Some media worked together to secure an Intel Arc A380 from China, saving on shipping fees. Golem, ComputerBase, and Igor's Lab (all out of Germany).

• Read more: LOL: Intel Arc A770 GPU benched in shilled video on LTT, OC chews 280W
• Read more: Intel reveals Arc A770 Limited Edition graphics card on LinusTechTips
• Read more: Intel staffers visit Gamers Nexus, bring Intel Arc A750 graphics card
• Read more: Intel marketing new flex: debunking non-existing rumors on Arc A780

ComputerBase notes that the Intel Arc A380 "is by no means a total failure" but it can't compete with the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (the slowest RDNA 2 GPU) or the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (which is a 3-year-old GPU). Performance isn't everything, as the drivers for the Intel Arc A380 are a "construction site".

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As for gaming, the site says that the gaming experience is kicked in the balls by the fact that there are graphical issues all over the place, usually resulting in a restart of the PC. Nice, I must have missed that part in Linus' video. I also don't remember Shrout saying the Intel Arc GPU was that shite that games had graphical issues and needed restarting.

I guess you can see how Intel is saving money on marketing, instead of pouring millions of dollars into marketing a GPU that they know is pretty much DOA (a piece of shit) on arrival... they can pay for advertisement with videos on YouTube and get millions of eyeballs (and articles from the likes of TweakTown and other tech media).

Free advertising...

Where Intel Xeon CPUs have billboards in train stations, AMD has marketing smack bang in the middle of Time Square in New York... NVIDIA has GeForce RTX billboards all over the planet and RTX-infused games (injecting ray tracing into the world of gaming on its own pretty much).

Intel and their first big bad GPU to fight AMD and NVIDIA on the eve of their respective monster next-gen GPUs? Whose idea was this? Who greenlit it? Where are the cards to traditional media, that someone who used to work in the traditional media would be sourcing himself... or is this deliberate? You and I both know it is, Itnel doesn't have that many cards, the software is a complete clusterfu*k with cherry-picked games and configurations.

It's all smiles and Hollywood...

Hook, line, and sinker... your turn, AMD and NVIDIA. It's time to show Big Blue how it's done. Give them and their new team a good black eye for this, their social teams should be all over it. But they can't either... because they'd be attacking the same teams they play with on YouTube. It's unfortunate, because it's all a big game.

We aren't playing that here, none of these companies hand us cash for marketing videos of their products. But hey, Intel, if you want me to... email us and we'll work something out.

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The launch of Intel's new Arc desktop GPUs is a bigger mess than the Intel i740... and while I wasn't reviewing graphics cards back then, I sure as hell owned one. I played a lot of Trespasser on it, most gamers wouldn't even know what that is... so I'll keep it as a mystery for you to dig into.

• Read more: Intel GPU labs gets hands-on with Arc Alchemist A380 desktop GPU
• Read more: Intel Arc Alchemist delayed AGAIN, drivers blamed: mid-summer release
• Read more: Intel Arc Alchemist desktop GPUs reportedly delayed, disappointment
• Read more: Intel GPU launch is a mess, partners aren't happy with mismanagement

Anyway, I think a better way of Intel doing this... would've been handing everyone Shrout and Peterson are friends with between them in the tech press and YouTubers, as well as Peterson with his wide-ranging contacts from NVIDIA.... and handed out a few hundred or 1000+ new Arc A380 graphics cards.

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Independently test them, let them tear Intel a new one where they need (hardware, drivers, etc) and let them work with Intel (with gamers, and consumers of all of the websites, YouTubers, etc) for their second-gen cards. If it was handled differently, it wouldn't be like this. Now this is what will be remembered for the second-gen Intel GPU.