Re: Space Marine 2 Arc GPU Performance Issues

Exile956 · ‎08-03-2026

Linux Client, Bazzite.
Using Proton GE Latest.
1920x1080 starting resolution.
FSR Performance is being used to reduce GPU load, so 960×540 internal resolution. My GPU should be asleep at this resolution and instead it's pegged to 99%, aka fully loaded, and isn't even fully being utilized as the power draw on the GPU is minimal.
GPU is an Intel Arc B570 10 GB.
Intel Arc B570 only using 64 W.
Intel Arc B570 TDP 150 W.
GPU temp tops out at 55C, never gets higher than this. So no thermal throttling.
GPU usage is pinned at 99%, @ 960x540 max low settings. So something is either wrong with the game's engine or the linux driver stack for the GPU.
I am using max Low Settings.
No Vsync.
No Frame cap in game.
No Frame cap with Mangohud.
FPS barely holding 30-35 fps with frequent dips below the 30 fps line into the low 20s.

CPU is an Intel i7 11700F.
CPU has a PL1 of 125.
CPU has PL2 of 224W.
CPU temp at 48-52C the entire session. So no power or thermal throttling taking place.
I am using a 250W TDP cooler so this is why temps stay so low.
CPU is only using 77 W max during my play sessions with this game.
Helldivers 2 in comparison fully utilizes the CPU and loads it to around 110W max.
The CPU is putting down a 4.4 GHz all core, with 4.4 GHz All core being stable the entire time playing across all cores. No throttling or dipping on CPU clocks.
The CPU is being properly fed power and is being fed this power reliably.
Even with all the being said, the max CPU usage ever hit was 33% when playing Space Marine 2. In comparison when I played Helldivers 2, I am maxing out at 99%, aka full utilization.

The CPU is being heavily under utilized in Space Marine 2.

My network is 1 Gbps WAN / 10 Gbps LAN

I am using Intel I226-V chipset on the PC being described here so, my client is limited to 2.5 Gbps, more than enough for this game, or any game really. So network is not an issue here.

Running a LibreQoS Internet Quality Test I get an A+ rating for my network connection. So my network is not a problem here.

I am using the following linux launch options.

VKD3D_CONFIG=descriptor_heap,no_upload_hvv PROTON_VKD3D_HEAP=1 DISABLE_LAYER_MESA_ANTI_LAG=1 MANGOHUD=1 %command%

Removing or changing launch options has zero impact as I ran a 2nd test run to see if things changed and they didn't.

Changing GPU settings to Ultra has zero impact on performance, I get the same level of performance whether I am using Ultra or maximum low settings. Pointing to a driver stack or game engine issue that needs to be addressed.

Linux. ( Bazzite ).
Intel i7 11700F. 125W PL1. 224W PL2. 4.4 GHz all core. Using a 250W TDP cooler.
ASRock B560M-C (UEFI v1.93A)
Intel Arc B570 10 GB. (PCIe 4.0)
Samsung Pro 990 2 TB. (PCIe 4.0)
32 GB DDR4 @3200 MHz.
Intel I219-V ( On the motherboard itself )
Intel I226-V ( As a PCIe Add in card and is what I use for the connection to the network via a CAT 6A wire that is shorter than 25m. )

*$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga 03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]:
Intel Corporation Battlemage G21 [Arc B570] [8086:e20c]
Subsystem: Sparkle Computer Co., Ltd. Device [172f:4216]
Kernel driver in use: xe
Kernel modules: xe
*$

*$ vulkaninfo | grep driverVersion
WARNING: [Loader Message] Code 0 : terminator_CreateInstance:
Received return code -9 from call to vkCreateIns tance in ICD /usr/lib64/libvulkan_dzn.so. Skipping this driver.
WARNING: [Loader Message] Code 0 : ICD for selected physical device does not export vkGetPhysicalDeviceDisplay PlanePropertiesKHR!
WARNING: [Loader Message] Code 0 : ICD for selected physical device does not export vkGetPhysicalDeviceDisplay PropertiesKHR!
driverVersion = 26.1.6 (109056006)
driverVersion = 26.1.6 (109056006)
*$

*$ uname -r
7.1.5-ogc5.1.fc44.x86_64
*$

*$ fastfetch
bazzite:stable
Bazzite
Linux 7.1.5-ogc5.1.fc44.x86_64
B560M-C
11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11700F (16) @ 4.90 GHz
Intel Arc B570 @ 2.75 GHz [Discrete]
4.14 GiB / 31.22 GiB (13%)
449.31 GiB / 1.82 TiB (24%) - btrfs
1920x1080 in 55", 143.98 Hz [External]
ASRock LED Controller
KDE Plasma 6.7.3
KWin (Wayland)
bash 5.3.9
konsole 26.4.3
39 (flatpak-system), 1 (flatpak-user), 2704 (rpm)
*$

Hopefully this helps someone at Intel/Saber Interactive find the cause of the bad performance and helps provide a fix.

Thank you for your time.

Exile956 · ‎08-03-2026

Space Marine 2 GPU Requirement:

G3D Mark Score on Passmark:

Minimums (30 fps on Minimum @1080p):
Radeon RX 580 = 8785 GTX 1060 = 10030.

Recommended(60 fps on Ultra @1080p):
RTX 3070 = 22089 Radeon RX 6800 XT = 25069.

CPU Requirements for Space Marine 2:

Passmark CPU scores:

Minimums (30 fps on Ultra):
Intel Core i5-8600K = Single Thread Rating 2566 / Multi-thread Rating 10132.
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X = Single Thread Rating 2378 / Multithread Rating 13865.

Recommended (60 fps on Ultra):
Intel Core i7-12700 = Single Thread Rating 3843 / Multi-thread Rating 29821.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X= Single Thread Rating 3448 / Multithread Rating 27668.

=================

My hardware: CPU:
Intel Core i7 1700F = Single Thread Rating 3255 / 20755 Multithread Rating.
GPU: Intel Arc B570 = 14104 G3D Mark Score.

I should be able to play this game well above 30 fps the entire time playing. Especially when I use FSR Performance and lower the demand on the GPU.

As for my CPU, I should be seeing 51 fps at Ultra settings while I am not GPU bottlenecked, which I won't be at FSR Performance, aka @ 960x540.

When dropping my settings to the maximum low values for all settings at this very low resolution, my GPU should be asleep, instead it's hitting 99% usage. I should see 60 fps averages often and I used to, I have no idea what happened when I spent time away from the game but now that I've come back to it, I have performance issues.

Exile956 · ‎08-03-2026

I should also state, I tried multiple proton versions.

GE-Proton 10-24 (Dates back to pre Space Marine 2 Patch 11)
Valve Proton Official 10.0-4(Pre Patch 11) and 11(Post Patch 11).

I got identical broken behavior in all of them, which points at the game engine itself rather than Proton.

So Proton version and Proton itself are a non-issue here.

The issue is either game engine related, most likely.
Or
The Intel driver stack is messed up for this game.

Although I do not believe it's the Intel Driver stack.

Exile956 · ‎08-17-2026

Space Marine 2 — Arc B-Series Performance Summary

Official System Requirements

Minimum (30 FPS @ 1080p Low): Ryzen 5 2600X / i5-8600K, 8GB RAM, RX 580 / GTX 1060 (6GB VRAM) / Intel Arc A580
Recommended (60 FPS @ 1080p Ultra): Ryzen 7 5800X / i7-12700, 16GB RAM, RX 6800 XT / RTX 3070 (8GB VRAM) / Nothing comparable on Intel's side but Intel's Pro B70 should get you above 60 fps natively @ Ultra as long as there are no CPU limits.

Benchmark Data Collected via several Hardware Unboxed Videos

B570/B580, 1440p Medium (Native vs Quality Upscaling, two CPU tiers Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 5 5600):

B570: 43-45 FPS avg native / 51-54 FPS avg upscaled
B580: 49-55 FPS avg native / 59-63 FPS avg upscaled
RTX 4060: 57 FPS avg native / 79 FPS avg upscaled (zero CPU sensitivity — same on both CPUs)
RX 7600: 59 FPS avg native / 70-78 FPS avg upscaled

1080p Ultra Quality, RTX 5060 Ti / RX 9060 XT / Arc Pro B70 / B580 comparison:

RTX 5060 Ti: 117 FPS avg
RX 9060 XT: 94 FPS avg
Arc Pro B70: 77 FPS avg
Arc B580: 58 FPS avg
Pro B70 vs B580 spec gap: +60% cores, +33% bandwidth → only +33% actual FPS gain, sub-linear scaling.

1080p Ultra native DLAA, CPU-isolated (RTX 5090, removes GPU bottleneck): i5-12400F cheapest tested that still cleared 60 FPS mark reliably. (68 1% low / 84 avg)

1080p Ultra, Native DLAA, 4K texture pack, wide GPU stack:

RTX 4070: 112 avg / RX 7700 XT: 101 / RTX 4060 Ti: 89 / RTX 3070: 89 / RX 7600 XT: 76 / RTX 4060: 74
Arc B580: 62 avg / 53 1% low — noticeably below the RTX 4060 (74) and even RX 6600 (51) territory relative to its normal tier position
Arc A770 16GB: 39 avg — bottom of the stack

Passmark reference: Arc B570/B580 show an unusually large DX11-vs-DX12 penalty (B570: +57% DX11 over DX12; B580: +60%) versus the A770's much smaller gap (+5%). Space Marine 2 is DX12-only.

Hardware Unboxed Review Findings

B580 launch review (initial): Space Marine 2 was already flagged as a weak title 62 FPS avg at 1080p, 16-18% slower than RTX 4060/RX 7600, one of the worse results in that review's 12-game suite.

B570 review: Space Marine 2 was again singled out as a bad case 18% slower than B580 at 1440p (9800X3D), 20% slower than RX 7600 at native 1440p with the 5600, worsening slightly with upscaling. Called out as one of the CPU-overhead-issue titles specifically.

Arc Pro B70 review: Space Marine 2 was explicitly named one of the titles where "ARC GPUs just aren't optimized well enough" Pro B70 held only a 33-34% lead over B580 (versus 38% average across 12 games), and actually landed below the vanilla RX 9060 at 1080p. Called "a very poor result" by the reviewer.

"Intel Fixes CPU Overhead Problem" (most recent, follow-up investigation): Intel's own Arc driver team confirmed to Hardware Unboxed directly that game-specific driver optimizations (starting with driver 7028) have resolved CPU overhead in specific titles Spider-Man Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 were named as fixed. Space Marine 2 was explicitly retested in this same video and found still unresolved, capped around 60 FPS at medium settings, with that ceiling appearing identically whether paired with a Ryzen 9800X3D or 5600.

Please Intel. Revisit the driver stack and this game. This is a very important title and is one of the most played games. Your GPUs need to work well on it. This includes your A series as well.

Conclusions

Not a CPU overhead issue in the classic sense. True CPU-overhead titles show performance collapsing on weaker CPUs while scaling normally on strong ones. Space Marine 2 shows the same FPS ceiling regardless of CPU tier.
Confirmed to be driver/optimization-related in principle, not purely architectural. Intel proved via the Spider-Man Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 fixes that they can resolve per-title performance problems on Arc through targeted driver work. Showing that Intel needs to do a pass targeting Space Marine 2.
Space Marine 2 has not received that treatment yet. It's been flagged as a problem title across three separate review cycles (B580 launch, B570 launch, and the most recent overhead-fix follow-up) without improvement.
The Pro B70's sub-linear scaling (+33% FPS from +60% cores) suggests the bottleneck isn't simply "not enough CPU/GPU power" something in how the game/driver path handles this specific title doesn't scale cleanly with more silicon, consistent with a targeted software/driver fix being the actual solution rather than more raw hardware.
Bottom line: this is very likely fixable by Intel, based on their own precedent but there's no indication Intel have prioritized this specific title yet, and no way to predict if/when they will.