I've had a lot of issues with a card that I genuinely enjoy. Here they are in a summary.
Go watch the LTT videos on YouTube before you read any of this. They sum up a few of my issues in a very well written and directed format that I am unable to do.
They also (more importantly) have a lot more experience in this stuff that I, again, do not have.
These will be split up into both Windows and Linux issues, as I have used the Arc card in both.
I only used the Arc card on Windows for a very short amount of time, and it was a while ago, so I don't even remember much of it.
The "big" thing that first caught my attention was the driver size, as I had to, y'know, install drivers to use it.
It turned out to be a whopping 1.2 GB. In comparison, the entirety of AMD Adrenalin, with the driver ends up being 598 MB. This is a very big difference for people with slower internet.
To be fair, I originally bought an A380, as the A750 was not in stock at the time. What weirded me out however, was that it came with a copy of Gotham Knights, a game that, I later confirmed, could barely run on that card.
The A380 ended up being nearly entirely useless for anything I tried using it for. I assume you could use it as a gpu for media encoding for a server, but in my case it did essentially nothing.
Alright, let's talk about the big elephant in the room when you use an Arc GPU. The UI. *dun* *dun *duuuuun*
It's absolute garbage.
Oh you wanted more information? Ok well, updating the drivers through it barely works, it's an overlay rather than an independant app, it feels "laggy", and again, it's absolutely massive.
The drivers also aren't that great either despite the massive size of the drivers. There is no VR Support (as of 3/10/2023), you absolutely MUST have Resizable-BAR support on, and the UI gives you OVERLAY NOTIFICATIONS. WHY?!
I currently actually use my Arc in a Linux computer (EndeavourOS on KDE Plasma Wayland, in case you were wondering), so I have a lot more time using it and (surprisingly) less issues.
To be completely honest, I don't actually game on my Linux PC. I play games on an old computer running Windows 11 that I stream to the Linux PC with Sunshine/Moonlight. I do, however, still have some issues on Linux.
The main issue on Linux, and basically the only one, is that the drivers have only just been made. The Arc cards use the Mesa drivers (AMD's open source drivers), and Intel is very Linux supportive.
To give credit where credit is absolutely due, Intel has drivers for Ubuntu directly from their website. Seeing as Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distros, that is huge in my eyes.
At this time (3/10/2023), Arc GPUs on Arch Linux are usable, and I even played Gotham Knights on Steam Proton.
I believe that the Alchemist generation of Arc cards are extremely good for the price and are very good first generation products from Intel, however, I also believe that the cards were released a hair too early.
The drivers, UI, and even construction of the cards are extremely "rushed" looking. There is essentially no way to repair the Intel manufactured Arc cards as they use glue and cheap plastics, the overlay is absolute garbage, and the drivers are severely unfinished.
Maybe if we allowed Intel more time without rushing them we could've gotten a better product, but personally I am glad to be what is essentially a beta tester for this card. I absolutely believe that this is the best card at the price, if the drivers work properly.