I Can't Believe Intel is Selling This. - Intel Arc A370M

[AlexTheGreatish]

After YEARS of getting teased, Intel Arc is finally here. In our hands we have the Intel Arc A370M and it.. well.. just watch the video.

 

Buy a HP Spectre x360 16" :https://geni.us/M01S2e

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

So are you meaning to tell me the drivers and software are as craptastic as AMD's are historically? 

[StephanTW]

I really do hope AV1 will be available on the upcoming amd or nvidea cards, i use my 5950X for streaming and my current r9 290 just cant record which is something i really would like to do alongside streaming just to get the separate audio streams.
so here is to the alternatives for i fear the desktop variant of the arc wont be there before them anyways along side with the potential bugs i personally would not want to risk it.

[Levent]

9 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

craptastic as AMD's drivers? 

FTFY. To be completely honest Intel's iGPU drivers were always garbage, this comes as no surprise to me. Only thing intel had going for was their drivers didnt crash left and right or were expected to perform nicely (compared to AMD).

[victoriasecrets]

Windows need to fix it's driver update. I also have the same issue with AMD laptop rolling back older driver. The older driver have washed out video.

[Levent]

2 minutes ago, StephanTW said:

I really do hope AV1 will be available on the upcoming amd or nvidia cards.

AV1 encoding and decoding has been avalible on Ampere and RDNA2 architectures since they were released (with the exception of shit tier GPUs).

[StephanTW]

Just now, Levent said:

AV1 encoding and decoding

you sure, cause i can find that they can do decoding but encoding always comes back as no, with all sources i checked anyway

[Ydfhlx]

8 minutes ago, victoriasecrets said:

Windows need to fix it's driver update. I also have the same issue with AMD laptop rolling back older driver.

Same. Old driver is from September 2020 ffs. And using it, the drivers randomly crash and reload within 5 mins of turning on from hibernating. Had to disable driver update in registery.

[Levent]

6 minutes ago, StephanTW said:

you sure, cause i can find that they can do decoding but encoding always comes back as no, with all sources i checked anyway

Actually you are correct, no Nvidia GPU so far is able to encode AV1.

[Senzelian]

36 minutes ago, Levent said:

(compared to AMD)

Day 449 (literally) of using a RX6700XT.

Driver crashes: 0

Performance issues: 0
Bugs: 1

The radeon software wouldn't open once. After a force quit and restard it did.

How often does that happen with Nvidia software? Already 2 times with the Nvidia control panel since I owned an RTX 3060 laptop, which hasn't even been 2 weeks.

 

Honestly even after owning a GTX 760, 980 SLI, 1080 and now the RTX 3060, I would probably choose AMD again if the performance/price ratio was at least similar.

 

Just my experience.

[WaschBaer__]

now the actual question everybody is asking themselves .. where do i get that black wallpaper witht he flower type thing in the center ? ive seen it twice now on hp devices that linus showed ... 

[Senzelian]

2 minutes ago, WaschBaer__ said:

now the actual question everybody is asking themselves .. where do i get that black wallpaper witht he flower type thing in the center ? ive seen it twice now on hp devices that linus showed ... 

Buy a modern HP laptop, snapshot the wallpaper, return the laptop. 
Easy.

[muddymind]

1 hour ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

After YEARS of getting teased, Intel Arc is finally here. In our hands we have the Intel Arc A370M and it.. well.. just watch the video.

 

Buy a HP Spectre x360 16" :https://geni.us/M01S2e

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

 

Could you guys disclose the driver versions used? And please in the future leave each graph on screen for 2 more seconds because they switch so fast it's awkward constantly pausing the video (specially on mobile) 

[Luscious]

The funny thing is Intel has done notebook graphics before (N570 Atom) so they should have had the driver part of the problem sorted out - yeah, we're talking about a hardware company doing software. At the end of the day it's another rushed product. Why it needs to be rushed rather than give it the time to cook in the oven like it should is probably the bigger question.

 

As for all the complaining Linus is doing, please just STFU!!! You will always get cut playing with the bleeding edge which is exactly what this product is. More so because it's a collaboration between Intel and the notebook manufacturer - the finger pointing goes both ways.

 

It's also high time LTT began more coverage on laptops on the main channel. All those short circuit jobs really don't dive into the guts of a notebook or more importantly look into the problems they have. Dell in particular are notably guilty here when it comes to battery replacements on their XPS laptops - not only are the batteries they provide from the factory utter garbage (good luck getting 2 years life out of it) they absolutely refuse to sell or even offer replacement batteries to end users. They expect you to ship your laptop back to them, be without your work tool for multiple weeks, and then probably also wipe all your data update Windows in the process. Yes, you could remove the single m.2 drive before sending it back only for Dell to refuse service on it because your factory installed boot drive is missing!!! Moreover, because Dell checks the hardware signature of the battery in the BIOS, any non-genuine-Dell or aftermarket battery you buy and install yourself will fail to work. How the heck does Alex not mention such a GLARING FLAW?!?!?!?! 

 

Right to repair IS a thing, and yes, I have one of these XPS notebooks with a dead battery. LMG needs to suspend all further product reviews from Dell until they address this problem.

[Vishera]

5 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

So are you meaning to tell me the drivers and software are as craptastic as AMD's are historically? 

AMDs drivers used to be good,

It used to be function over form but all of that changed in 2016.

Catalyst Control Center was rock solid,the only issues i had with it were related to Underscan - But there were community fixes for that so no big deal.

4 hours ago, Senzelian said:

Day 449 (literally) of using a RX6700XT.

Driver crashes: 0

Performance issues: 0
Bugs: 1

The radeon software wouldn't open once. After a force quit and restard it did.

How often does that happen with Nvidia software? Already 2 times with the Nvidia control panel since I owned an RTX 3060 laptop, which hasn't even been 2 weeks.

 

Honestly even after owning a GTX 760, 980 SLI, 1080 and now the RTX 3060, I would probably choose AMD again if the performance/price ratio was at least similar.

 

Just my experience.

Not surprising considering that your card is newer than the 2020 driver fixes.

AMD had serious driver issues rendering their cards unusable in the years 2016-2020,

Driver crashes during use,black screens,green screen of death and more,

Though for some reason the RX 400/500 were not affected by those as far as i know (except for the green screen of death).

 

Here are some articles about it:

https://www.pcinvasion.com/r9-380-black-screen-issues-amds-persistent-unsolved-bug/

https://hothardware.com/news/amd-radeon-driver-issues-navi-users-black-screen-frustration

 

Not just Tonga and Navi GPUs were affected,Vega and others were affected as well.

Back then updating the drivers was like playing Russian roulette...

[Senzelian]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

AMD had serious driver issues rendering their cards unusable in the years 2016-2020,

Driver crashes during use,black screens,green screen of death and more,

I know. Thing is that he mentioned them still having these issues.

[Vishera]

1 hour ago, Luscious said:

Why it needs to be rushed rather than give it the time to cook in the oven like it should is probably the bigger question.

Those GPUs will be obsolete the moment AMD and NVIDIA announce successors to the GTX 1650 AND RX 6400,

Intel already mass produced this product so they have to sell it before AMD and NVIDIA make their move.

1 hour ago, Luscious said:

As for all the complaining Linus is doing, please just STFU!!! You will always get cut playing with the bleeding edge which is exactly what this product is.

There is nothing cutting edge about this product,I would just recommend the competition.

[noitcelfeR]

This review felt pretty stupid. I’m sorry if that sounds blunt. LTT is wasting a newly-released MOBILE GPU without talking about any of the points that someone who is in the market for one may be interested in.
 

With that low-end GPU, performance per watt is a big concern. In addition, battery life under certain workloads is important as well. None of this was covered.

 

What about the weight of the notebook? Nope. 
 

Driver availability/compatibility for Linux? Not covered.

Pricing? I can find an Arc-equipped HP starting at $1399. Did your review unit come equipped extras?

 

A great deal was covered about gaming performance, but it was largely an unfair comparison. Nvidia had quite a bit of development runway for their discrete GPU drivers. Even if Intel was on the same starting line, game devs are not going to spend extra time trying to get their game optimized for Arc.
 

Video rendering? LTT even admitted that support was weak on the software level.

But, again, this is a notebook. It’s not a desktop. It’s not even a workstation-class notebook. It’s not trying to be at $1399.

 

From what I’ve seen from LinusMedia, this has been the biggest clickbait sham of a review yet.

[BuckGup]

7 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

So are you meaning to tell me the drivers and software are as craptastic as AMD's are historically? 

Yeah and Intel had to completely remake the wafers since there was a security flaw that bad

[Brian McKee]

I think there's hope for arc, but this is obviously a case of growing pains with a new product. GPU space is extremely hard to penetrate, why do you think so few companies historically have been able to compete?

[Ginger Penguin]

I know this is a bit offtopic but this is the second time that transcoding benchmark shows that the pointless extra resolution on 4K Floatplane causes compatibility issues. It's been a serious sticking point for those of us who try to watch on TVs. And it's not the aspect ratio. The 2160x1080 file clearly does just fine.

 

Can we please stop using it and go with, in Anthony's words in the M1 Studio video, consumer 4K so that the number of us for whom this over-4K resolution breaks compatibility can actually watch in the resolution we paid for? Or at least give us that extra option if you want to preserve 4320x2160 for people who have 8K TVs or something. Not that they're really getting any benefit since your cameras only shoot DCI 4K anyway (4096x2160).

[ook512]

It would be interesting to have a second review aimed at using Linux on this laptop - maybe in combination with Level1Techs ?

 

1) Linux drivers for Intel integrated GPUs generally work incredibly well. Now that Steam games can be run on latest Fedora Linux (or anything else reasonably recent),
it would be nice to know if Intel's dedicated GPUs work on Linux just as well as the integrated GPUs or not.

(maybe even compare windows/linux gaming performace on this laptop ?)

 

2) Intel supports GVT-g on some onboard graphics. It allows running multiple VMs (either Linux or Windows) which share access to the same GPU... on a laptop.
On desktop, one can pass through the second GPU using VFIO or similar. But on laptop, the only way to have GPU acceleration in VMs is Intel GVT-g and integrated graphics... at least until now (if GVT-g actually works on Arc GPUs).

 

Running Linux directly on the laptop, with two Linux VMs with GPU acceleration each shown in a window on half of the screen, running the same game would be a nice test of features not available on other laptops (and possibly a catchy title image for a video).

 

But the real use of such laptop can be to pass-through USB webcam to a VM, and use that GPU-accelerated VM (incl. video encoding) for running software with history of security issues - e.g. Zoom, Windows, etc...

 

Simply greater freedom to choose what runs on the host (and is considered more or less "trusted software") and what can be run in VMs and considered "untrusted" (but still can have access to more GPU power than just integrated GPU) can actually be a selling point for such laptop.

 

Even without such detailed review of Linux-specific features, it would be nice for each laptop review to end with 10-15 seconds of basic Linux functionality test, like "Latest Ubuntu: everything except wifi and suspend works, latest Arch everything except suspend works, latest Fedora everything works" (with Fedora being generally bleeding-edge as good stand-in for distributions not derived from Ubuntu or Arch).

It would be useful not just for current Linux users, but also for people who are getting fed up with problems with Windows, and want the next computer Linux-compatible, so they can have the choice to switch to SteamOS in the future (once it is not Steamdeck-only).

 

Thanks for the review, but it did not really help with purchasing decision.

[Ydfhlx]

13 hours ago, noitcelfeR said:

This review felt pretty stupid. I’m sorry if that sounds blunt. LTT is wasting a newly-released MOBILE GPU without talking about any of the points that someone who is in the market for one may be interested in.
 

With that low-end GPU, performance per watt is a big concern. In addition, battery life under certain workloads is important as well. None of this was covered.

 

What about the weight of the notebook? Nope. 
 

Driver availability/compatibility for Linux? Not covered.

Pricing? I can find an Arc-equipped HP starting at $1399. Did your review unit come equipped extras?

 

A great deal was covered about gaming performance, but it was largely an unfair comparison. Nvidia had quite a bit of development runway for their discrete GPU drivers. Even if Intel was on the same starting line, game devs are not going to spend extra time trying to get their game optimized for Arc.
 

Video rendering? LTT even admitted that support was weak on the software level.

But, again, this is a notebook. It’s not a desktop. It’s not even a workstation-class notebook. It’s not trying to be at $1399.

 

From what I’ve seen from LinusMedia, this has been the biggest clickbait sham of a review yet.

Lol does Intel pay you or what?

 

They did check battery life.

 

The did disclose what was the notebook equipped with, did you not see this? It was literally more expensive.

 

They did not show the weight because it does not matter. They review GPU, not laptop. Unless you are suggesting that Arc GPUs' main advantage is that they're lighter...

 

You say they shouldn't focus on gaming. But they you also say they shouldn't focus on workstation-type tasks. So what should they focus on?

 

You say that worse drivers shouldn't matter. I fail to see why tho. You can't with a straight face recommend a product that performs worse because reasons. If it can't complete a render it's literally useless for rendering. And if it pushes less frames per second it's literally worse and it does not matter why for an end user. Best case it will be impreved some time, but it might not. And this was all said in the review.

 

I also fail to see why it being a notebook somehow nullifies the buggy software.

 

Also clickbait is type of title or thumbnail, not of a whole review, because viewer has already clicked if they see the review.

 

I don't know what you're interested in when buying a notebook but they covered all major areas of this GPU's performance. Gaming, video editing, battery life.

[MultiGamerClub]

On 7/2/2022 at 8:05 PM, Senzelian said:

Day 449 (literally) of using a RX6700XT.

Driver crashes: 0

Performance issues: 0
Bugs: 1

The radeon software wouldn't open once. After a force quit and restard it did.

How often does that happen with Nvidia software? Already 2 times with the Nvidia control panel since I owned an RTX 3060 laptop, which hasn't even been 2 weeks.

 

Honestly even after owning a GTX 760, 980 SLI, 1080 and now the RTX 3060, I would probably choose AMD again if the performance/price ratio was at least similar.

 

Just my experience.

Im glad amd's drivers have gone better for more people.

 

Its been the opposite for every year i had amd gpu's since 2012.

Drivers was hell and barely helped.

 

Last amd card i had was an R9 380 and it was good, but drivers was always so bad.

 

Changed to nvidia and almost no problems since i switched.

Really dont like the g-sync premium shit but oh well.

 

edit: @SenzelianIn all honesty, seeing a 6900XT now for 1300$ brand new.. Compared to a 3090ti for 2400$ on its lowest.. Its amazing nvidia even sells over here with that price difference.. And now its going lower.

Edited July 3, 2022 by MultiGamerClub

[Quackers101]

intel and microsoft have always caused issues for me... it's a bit stupid that they allow this to keep going on.

Just because its not the number version microsoft says is the "newest", windows just push auto updates on this crap for no good reason, more fun is that windows said it was "optional" until it just gives you the finger. more versions from intel is also not getting correctly through windows either, makes me wish someone would hack the **** out of microsoft so they could start thinking about making the experience less crap. Also suck for product pages that doesn't have download page or hidden to be anti-consumer.