Bandwidth and idle power-draw problems in Predator A770

[TCK]

Hello

The Acer Predator A770 has some issues:

1. In 3DMark PCI Express feature test, the bandwidth is only 13 GB/s (showing in attached file). The issue happened in driver version 31.0.101.4032 and 31.0.101.3959. The version of PCI Express feature test is 1.0. 

2. The idle power-draw is always about 32 W. I have tried enable the ASPM and set it to L1 mode. Set the PCI-Express "Link state power-management" to "Maximum." The idle power-draw didn't change. 

The MB is MSI pro B660m-a wifi ddr4. I test these issues after upgrated the bios. The bios version is 7D43v19. 

A770 is installed on the PCI_E1 slot. I have double checked with GPU-Z and 3DMark that the card is using the PCIe x16 4.0 interface (the result of PCI Express feature test shows the interface is PCIe x16 4.0). Also, the resizable bar is enabled.

Thanks,

TCK

[powerarmour]

My Intel Arc A770 16GB PCIe bandwidth is currently ~17GB/s:

http://www.3dmark.com/pcie/344853

But yep, it's still low for a PCIe x16 Gen4 GPU, my previous RTX 3070 was like 26GB/s for example on the same board:

http://www.3dmark.com/pcie/205805

Likely a hardware bug though, and I don't think we'll ever see a software/firmware fix for it, but you never know. Similar with the high idle power draw, it just is what it is, and hopefully Alchemist+ can be better without requiring dumb ASPM settings.

[TCK]

Hi, powerarmour

Thank you for sharing your testing result. But, I don't think it is a hardware bug. There is a formula to calculate the bandwidth. That means the bandwidth should be almost the same if we have the same hardware. 

However, the truth is that everyone got a different result. I saw some reviews showing the bandwidth is about 22 GB/s on both A770 and A750. Looks like I am not a individual case. Let's wait for the official answer hoping they can fix this issue.

Best,

TCK

[Andres_Intel]

Hello TCK,

Thank you for posting on the Intel®️ communities.  

I appreciate all the information, I will make an investigation of the issue to provide you with accurate details. 

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Andres_Intel]

Hello TCK,

We have been unable to reproduce the issue on our system using also an Acer Predator A770. Just for testing, please answer the question below:

• Can you test the graphics card with a different motherboard? If so, let us know the results.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[TCK]

Hi,  Andres

Thank you for your response. 

Which issue you can't reproduce, bandwidth or idle power? Currently, I don't  have any other motherboards to test it.

But, I plan to post this issue to another PC community looking for Arc users who has the same problem as me.

Maybe I can provide a sample of the same problem if it helps.

Thanks,

TCK

[Andres_Intel]

Hello TCK,

Thank you for keeping us informed and for the clarification.

We have been unable to reproduce both issues on our system, for that reason, we recommend you contact Acer to verify if they can suggest any other solution like a firmware update.

Now we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Regards, 

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician