Arc A750/A770 Baldurs Gate 3 bad performance

[LynxRufus]

Hi,

unfortunately, Arc A750 & A770 in Baldurs Gate 3 is performing really bad,

both in terms of  max fps it can reach on avg

and  also regarding relative performance differences when compared to other competing cards like AMD RX 6700 XT or  RTX 3060 Ti .

I know, performance of Arc is still very inconsistent across various games out there, especially newer ones which often have problems at release,

but still, on average, these days it roughly looks like this, or at least very similar :

https://www.computerbase.de/thema/grafikkarte/rangliste/#diagramm-performancerating-2560-1440-rasterizer-avg-fps

Avg. 1440p Performance:

Arc A770 100%

RX 6700 XT 125%

RTX 3060 Ti 126%

however, Baldurs Gate 3 is one of these unfortunate Titles for Intel Arc, where the gap is a lot wider than  usual, with the Arc falling behind even more:

https://www.computerbase.de/2023-08/baldurs-gate-3-benchmark-test/3/#diagramm-baldurs-gate-3-2560-1440

avg 1440p performance:

Arc A750 100%

Arc A770 100%

RX 5700 XT 102%

RX 6650 XT 115%

RTX 3060 Ti 132%

RX 6700 XT 141%

gets even worse on 4K,

where RTX 3060Ti is @ 150%

and RX 6700 XT yields 157% ...

but the more interesting thing here,

is that even the old rx 5700 XT is slightly ahead of the Arc,

and that also the RX 6650 XT is noticeable faster than Arc, usually at least Arc can beat that one almost everywhere else.

And most interesting, is the fact that both A750 & A770 equally as 'fast' (or slow) in BG3 compared to each other ?

which just looks 'off' - and it made me believe something is just wrong here.

(either driver wise on Intels side, or on Larians side regarding their Dx11 & Vulkan implementations, unfortunately there's no DX12)

before you ask:

it doesn't matter if you use the older Baldurs Gate 'game on' driver release, or a more current one, performance is about the same. (I'm currently using latest driver release)

while frametimes are generally pretty good on Vulkan,

I've also noticed difficulties with periodic 'spiking' or 'hitching' causing micro stutter/lag when running said API (usually happens when rotating camera), causing a 'tick' every few seconds (you'll notice it on the graphs later as well)

and dx11 on the other hand can yield better avg sometimes, but has usually significantly worse frametimes/pacing compared to Vulkan.

it  runs 'best' imho when using Dx11 + DXVK2.2  , which was a surprise, at least to me,

note this is in early Act 1, performance will be even worse for all HW later on, especially A3 :

avg fps

frametimes

poor Arc performance

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for posting on the Intel communities. I understand that you are having bad performance issues while playing Baldurs Gate 3 with your Intel® Arc™ A770 Graphics and Intel® Arc™ A750 Graphics, I know that this can be very frustrating for you, it will be a pleasure to help you.  

I appreciate all the information provided, it is very helpful to start with some recommendations you can find below:

• I see that you mentioned you have tested the latest version of the graphics driver, yesterday we released a new version 31.0.101.4672, let's do a clean installation with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to check if the behavior changes. For guidance, How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics Driver.
• Update BIOS to the version F6b. For installation steps, contact Gigabyte.

Please let me know the results.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[LynxRufus]

I was expecting something like this,

and although it's exhausting and gets annoying at times,

tyvm for you standard-reply, anyway.

updating MB bios,  but also gfx clean driver update after DDU,  didn't change anything (and why should it?)

* Vulkan still has smoother framtetimes/fps over Dx11, but "default Vulkan" API via BG3 Vulkan *.exe has distracting spikes (periodical hitching/small freezes)

* avg / max fps / fratetimes are all basically the same, regardless game version, mb bios or gfx driver version.

FramtetimesFPS avgFPS raw dataavg fps, 1%perc / 0.1% low avg

[AjrAlves]

D11 + DXVK runs better than pure vulkan because the D11 option will reduce some graphics functions, so D11 + DXVK can't be compared with Vulkan because it isn't the same workload.

Pure Vulkan will run the same graphical load as D12 but in the Vulkan API, while D11 + DXVK will emulate the D11 load on Vulkan, and the D11 load is lighter.

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for your response, the information provided helps a lot. 

Please provide the information below in case we need to replicate the issue:

• Take screenshots of the game settings.
• Provide step-by-step instructions, this is to reproduce the issue as accurately as possible.
• Just to verify if there is any improvement, clean install Windows. For guidance, you can contact Microsoft

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[LynxRufus]

sry no but I will definitely not reinstall window - and my install is already quite fresh/clean anyway atm, but that's no the point/irrelevant in that regard.

I already get roughly the same poor  results as everyone else , so this  also wont change much if anything at all.

fyi, I'm not only referring to the test from Computerbase.de ( https://www.computerbase.de/2023-08/baldurs-gate-3-benchmark-test/)

but also to the review found on pcgameshardware.de , and I also used exactly the same ingame settings & the same save game file they provided over here :

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Baldurs-Gate-3-Spiel-18525/Specials/Benchmark-Test-Review-Grafik-Ersteindruck-1425826/2/#a1

steps to repro:

1) download the PCGH save game file for Baldurs Gate 3 which they used for their testing,

I used the same save game as well - here's a direct link:

https://download.pcgameshardware.de/asset/binaries/2023/08/Baldur_s_Gate_3_PCGH-Benchsaves__CPU___GPU_160302.7z

unzip & copy the entire folder(s) & their content to

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles\Public\Savegames\Story

which should be the default save file location

2) launch Baldurs Gate 3 in Vulkan mode , either manually or via it's launcher (I have the version on steam platform btw)

3) look at the PCGH benchmark sequence, and adjust the ingame settings accordingly (start looking @ 0:11 sec for details)

https://youtu.be/JDPl6PxneGY?t=11

basically you use max preset, and then change to desired resolution. ( I  used 1440p )

4) look for &  load the "GPU benchmark sequence " save game, iirc it's called "Samyra GPU bench"

for direct comparison (to PCGH results and my own capframex results posted above (both 1440p)

5) without zooming out, just start rotating the camera with either "e" or "q" button iirc,

for about 30sec during benchmark sequence. results will vary less that way between runs imho.

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for your answer, and for sharing the step-by-step instructions.

I will start with an investigation of this issue to provide you with the next steps, as soon I have further information I will let you know.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for your time.

We still working on the reproduction, we are working really hard to have the same results, as soon I have them I will let you know

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for your wait time and patience.

We still working on the reproduction of the issue, we will have the results soon, as soon I have them I will let you know.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Thank you for all your time.

We have been working on the investigation of this issue, our internal tests show the Intel® Arc™ Graphics now have slightly better performance than the RTX3060 in both DX11 and Vulkan.

Please perform a clean installation of the graphics driver with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to version 31.0.101.4952, which we released this week. If you still need guidance, How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics Driver.

Keep me informed of the results.

Regards,  

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

Were you able to perform the clean installation of the graphics driver with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to version 31.0.101.4952?   

Let us know if you still need assistance.    

Best regards,   

Andres P.   

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Andres_Intel]

Hello LynxRufus,

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards, 

Andres P. 

Intel Customer Support Technician