I purchased a couple of Intel ARC 750 cards on sale but have not been much into the 3D side of things. The drivers have always worked well for basic computer usage under both Linux and Windows (well, perhaps not Wayland, but that’s another story).
I’d recently re-installed a system (I’d screwed up tinkering about with) and thought I’d check the status of these cards and Blender rendering. All systems are the latest updates and drivers/compute provided by Intel. Test scene was the Blender 3.1 – Secret Deer demo
Conclusions?
- As of this writing Blender 4.1.1 is the best supported version overall.
- Dual GPU’s do not function under Linux, at least by default (help appreciated!).
- Embree is a bit hit and miss on both platforms.
Blender Version | Configuration | Ubuntu 24.10 | Windows 11 |
---|---|---|---|
4.2.3 | Single GPU | 01:01:27 | 01:03:37 |
Single GPU/Embree | FAIL | 00:44:72 | |
Dual GPU | FAIL | FAIL | |
Dual GPU/Embree | FAIL | FAIL | |
4.2.1 | Single GPU | 01:03:48 | 01:03:36 |
Single GPU/Embree | FAIL | 00:44:91 | |
Dual GPU | FAIL | FAIL | |
Dual GPU/Embree | FAIL | FAIL | |
4.1.1 | Single GPU | 00:59:93 | 01:02:13 |
Single GPU/Embree | 00:59:98 | 01:02:21 | |
Dual GPU | FAIL | 00:36:97 | |
Dual GPU/Embree | FAIL | 00:24:10 | |
3.6.9 | Single GPU | 01:01:14 | 01:02:81 |
Single GPU/Embree | 01:00:97 | 01:02:59 | |
Dual GPU | FAIL | 00:37:68 | |
Dual GPU/Embree | FAIL | 00:36:88 |
update: For compatibility reasons with another app, I ended up grabbing a Nvidia (4070 Ti Super 16 gig) card recently and gave the same test under Blender 4.1.1 a try. Optix rendered the scene in 00:12:92. Over twice as fast as the best time on a dual Intel Arc GPU. At twice the card cost.
Will keep the Intel Arc cards for another older box, if the power supply will take it. Even one card would run circles on the Geforce 970 still puttering away inside it