Intel GPU recommendation

[ElmarJ]

Dear Intel community, Intel supporters,

if this is the wrong forum, please tell me, if there is a better place to ask.

I started to look for dedicated GPU hardware for my new notebook which has an integrated Intel GPU in the processor, it's an i5 Tigerlake (1135G7) and it gives satisfactory performance for basically all my games for my rather low graphical demands. But for sophisticated games, the frame rate gets relatively low even at 720p.

I looked at the new Intel GPUs because NVIDIA apparently is a bad choice for Open Source, transparency and Linux and AMD's GPUs are wasteful with energy and resources. It does not really satisfy my requirements.

I'd like to have raytracing support for the graphical things I want to do by myself and maybe to test some racing games that might use raytracing graphics. I have a background as a Nintendo console gamer but moved to Garuda Linux (labeled as a user-friendly OS with Gaming support) for the current console generation due to reasons related to Nintendo as a company and because I want to support the development and modding community better.

In summary, I am looking for raytracing (hardware support) and a socially and ecologically sustainable solution, i.e. at least low energy consumption ≤ 100W; I doubt I would get answers to other questions. My demands are at least 720p (I would not mind 900p though), with at least 30fps (preferably > 40fps), on Garuda Linux (Arch based). I need to deploy the device as an eGPU (will need casing I guess) and my notebook has Thunderbolt 4 ports available.

In the mobile and workstation segments, I found better solutions than the A3xx offers in the desktop segment:

A550M (Mobile segment)

A60M (Workstation segment, a bit more powerful than the A550M)

According to Wikipedia, these are new GPUs just released this month.

Is it possible to use one of these GPUs as an external GPU with a Thunderbolt 4 notebook?
Maybe you know if it can be used with Garuda or Arch Linux? (I think, Garuda Linux supports Mesa 23. I know, official Linux support is 6.0 and higher while Ubuntu sees drivers even for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.)

And in case, where can I buy the GPU?

Your help is appreciated, thanks.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello @ElmarJ

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities. We would be more than glad to help you with your request. 

In order to answer your question, there are some places where to buy Intel products such as the GPU you are looking for, to get more information about this topic feel free to visit the website below:

• Hitting the Shelves: Intel® Arc™ A750 and A770 GPUs Release Today!

Regarding the Thunderbolt output the graphic card A550M such as Arc™ Pro A60M doesn’t have a Thunderbolt port, you can verify this information here:

A550M:

Graphics Output‡eDP* 1.4, DP 2.0 up to UHBR 10**, HDMI* 2.1, HDMI* 2.0b

Arc™ Pro A60M:

Graphics Output‡eDP* 1.4, DP 2.0 up to UHBR 10**, HDMI* 2.1, HDMI* 2.0b

For this probably you will require an adapter to run de GPU on your notebook, however, take in mind that your system will require at least some minimum requirements to run properly your Intel Arc. For more information about it please visit this website:

Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics – Desktop Quick Start Guide

When using a graphics adapter as an external GPU with a Thunderbolt 4 notebook, it is necessary to use an eGPU enclosure. Unfortunately, Intel cannot confirm compatibility with all products. In this case, it must be necessary to contact the manufacturer of the eGPU enclosure to verify the compatibility between the ARC GPU and your PC.

Besides this information, check this link to check the comparison between both GPUs A550M such as Arc™ Pro A60M: Compare 2 Intel® Products

And finally, please remember that Documentation and instructions for installing, deploying, and updating Intel software to enable general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) capabilities for Ubuntu* 22.04 on 11th Gen and newer Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics can be found at dgpu-docs.intel.com.

Additional Linux distributions are not supported at this time.

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[ElmarJ]

Hello Jean!

Thank you for your comprehensive and useful response.

I have looked at notebooksbilliger.de for example but they only have Desktop GPUs available, this means A3xx and A750 Arc GPUs. The price is good, kind of inexpensive in comparison to what I've seen other GPUs to cost, but it does not satisfy my wattage requirements. I don't want to use a power house.

However, I don't know where I could buy a mobile- or workstation-segment GPU. Does this mean they are not intended to be bought by consumers but are only sold to manufacturers? Do adapters exist for A550M or A60M which allow for a Thunderbolt interface?

Also thank you for mentioning the system requirements. I have yet to investigate or ask the notebook manufacturers regarding the 500-series motherboard with resizable Base Address Register support. Tigerlake is 11th Gen.

It also says, a program called "Intel Support & Driver Assistant" is needed but the download provides an Windows EXE straight away. Is this driver management tool available for Linux-based systems?

Yes, I need to figure out the compatibility with eGPU enclosures. Do you or anyone else have experience with using Intel GPUs, particularly the mobile segment GPUs, with enclosure? I don't know where to ask or search.

I will also ask the Garuda Forum about driver package ports to Arch. I read in a Reddit post that someone uses it on Arch. At least there are some distributions different from Ubuntu where they can use it.

Thank you.

[IsaacQ_Intel]

Hello @ElmarJ

Thank you for your reply.

According to our information, the A550M or A60M are not available to be purchased by consumers, since these GPUs are mobile, they need to be soldered to the motherboard, so that’s the main reason why are sold only to manufacturers. Also, according to the thunderbolt 4 outputs, it is up to the original equipment manufacturer the fact to add or not those ports to their laptops.

In this case, it will be necessary to verify with the OEM if these devices have that thunderbolt port available.

Also, most likely mobile GPUs are not compatible with GPU enclosures, for that you will have to do that research in order to find the best option that applies for you. Usually, the enclosures have Thunderbolt 4 outputs.

To answer your question regarding to Intel® Driver & Support Assistant, is only supported by Windows 8.1 Family*, Windows 8 family*, Windows 7 family*, Windows 11 Family*, Windows 10 Family*. Intel does not provide drivers for other OS from Linux besides from Ubuntu. As we let you know before, Documentation and instructions for installing, deploying, and updating Intel software to enable general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) capabilities for Ubuntu* 22.04 on 11th Gen and newer Intel® Core™ processors with Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics can be found at dgpu-docs.intel.com.

Additional Linux distributions are not supported at this time.

Just for your information, since you are searching for low wattage consumption GPU but mobile GPUs are not available for end users, we can suggest checking the Intel® Arc™ A380 Graphics, for more information feel free to check our Distributor Partner Directory, our official vendors.

[ElmarJ]

Hello Isaac from Intel,

yeah, I started to think alike. I am pretty impressed with how well the i5 Tigerlake works for my gaming standards. It has no problems playing my games on 720p without Raytracing. But a GPU would be nice for Raytracing and also other things such as de/encoding of media and non-real-time rendering.

If the i5 Tigerlakes gives satisfying results for me, an Arc A380 certainly would do it for me. The only odd thing is, it feels so far away from the next more powerful Arc A750, which is about 3,5 times as powerful. I wonder, if there is anything in between that could be bought?

I saw, there are also Workstation versions, like A60 (without m) but I did not find them in retail. These are also just for manufacturers? At least, they can be put inside an enclosure. But I see that A50 is basically like A380 and A60 is too much for my requirements.

I will wait for an answer from my notebook manufacturer due to the Resizable Base Address Register support.

So, it is correct, that the A380 is suitable for being used as an eGPU with enclosure and Thunderbolt 4? And a little bit off-topic: Is there any cheap enclosure option available? Most of them feature big Power Supply Units that I don't need.

Or for the A750, is there a healthy way to throttle the power consumption to a limit of say 100W for Total Power (together with the enclosure) and a reduction in performance? In that case, a A750 would be interesting as well.

Btw, your link regarding the installation instructions says, it is depreciated which confuses me. Is this supposed to be this way? The other recommended link on that page points to another article that does not really cover the same content and includes two other Linux Distributions.

Regards, Christoph

[Jocelyn_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello, @Louism  

As previously mentioned, Intel Arc Pro GPUs and "M" GPUs were designed for Workstations and Mobile devices, these are not open to buy them separately, if you wish to opt-in for these cards, you need to search for Manufacturers that may have products with these cards.

Since you are looking for a GPU that doesn't have a high power consumption and Ray Tracing, a good option is the Intel Arc A380 Graphics card, for example, but if you prefer the Intel Arc A750 Graphics card, that's your decision at the end, since everything will depend on your needs with your PC. In any case, you can see here a comparison link: A380 and A750 comparison.

Regarding your inquiry about the A380 Graphics card, it can be used as an eGPU without problems, but you need to contact the Enclosure Manufacturer for compatibility inquiries with Thunderbolt 4 as this depends on their design and specifications.

Also, you can use the Arc A750 Graphics card at a lower Power consumption, however, this can affect its performance and we don't recommend it.

Can you please specify or provide details on what you mean in the last part? "Your link regarding the installation instructions says, it is depreciated which confuses me. Is this supposed to be this way? The other recommended link on that page points to another article that does not really cover the same content and includes two other Linux Distributions."

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.  

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[ElmarJ]

Thank you Jocelyn for your answer.

My picture becomes crisp. A380 is much closer to what I look for than A750. I don't care so much for a performance drop but if the functionality and efficiency are significantly worse when using low-power operation of the A750 card, which it sounds like if you don't recommend it, then I should refrain from that option.

Now my biggest concern is compatibility. It's a bit annoying that I don't know an eGPU enclosure that is not more than 100€ more expensive than the GPU itself (without even knowing about A380 support). Well, you guys are also much faster than the customer support service of my notebook's manufacturer which might take one week for a comprehensive answer.

I have started a question in the Garuda Linux Forum whether it's feasible at the moment to use an Intel GPU with Garuda Linux.

Regarding your question, if you click on this link https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/installation-guides/ubuntu/ubuntu-jammy-arc.html it says, the page is depreciated and gives another link which points to the installation of a different series of GPU.

Regards

[IsaacQ_Intel]

Thank you for your reply.

In this case, it seems the A380 is the best option that fits your needs. We suggest trying with that GPU. Also, regarding the eGPU enclosures, we cannot provide you with any model or suggestion, so you have to do your research by contacting the original equipment manufacturers or comparing the units on their respective websites.

And on regards to the installation guide for Ubuntu we apologize for the inconvenience, the website was updated, so the new link is the following:

https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/installation.html

[ElmarJ]

Okay, thank you everyone for helping out.

I have been asking in the Garuda Forum and the people who responded said Intel GPUs can be used without problems. Someone of the Garuda team is using an Intel GPU. They say, Intel GPUs do have official Linux support since Linux 6.1 or Linux 6.2.

I still need to wait for the response from my notebook manufacturer though.

[IsaacQ_Intel]

Thanks for your reply.

We will be more than glad to assist you if you have more inquiries. We would like to ask you if you still need assistance from our side. Otherwise, we can continue to close this thread.

Please let us know.

[IsaacQ_Intel]

Hello @ElmarJ

We hope you are doing fine.

Were you able to check the previous post?

Let us know if you still need assistance.

Best regards,

Isaac Q. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ElmarJ]

Hi Isaac from Intel,

I am sorry, I have no further issues at the moment . Thank you for your help.

[IsaacQ_Intel]

Hello @ElmarJ

Thank you for your reply.

We're glad to know the information helped. Hopefully, it will help other community members. Since the thread is now solved, we will close it. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Thank you for your understanding. 

Best regards,  

Isaac Q.   

Intel Customer Support Technician