If you look at all the laptops sold annually, you’ll find that the vast majority have an Intel video card on board. Or rather: an Intel GPU built into the processor. If you want to be able to play a bit of fun, the integrated GPU is not enough and you have to look for a laptop with an additional video card. Given AMD’s minimal market share, that would be an Nvidia GPU in nine out of ten cases. However, recently you can opt for an Intel Arc video card. Additional Intel GPU, which is faster than what’s built into your processor. Is this worth it?

Anyone like me who follows Intel Arc news firsthand will know that the new Intel graphics cards didn’t make the best first impression. This started with the late release, because in January I got a call from the manufacturer who was going to get an Arc laptop and wanted them to send me a review copy. That review copy took a long time and didn’t turn up in the end at all. Although there in South Korea Spring 2022 Although a small number of Arc laptops were sold, it took until September to get their first Arc laptop.

Meanwhile, the Arc name didn’t get much publicity, as the first desktop video cards came out over the summer and tech media got one unanimous. Negation. The software turned out to be unstable, the drivers weren’t optimized enough for DirectX 11 games, and the performance was disappointing. If you are interested in the full story about Intel Arc’s challenging delivery, you can read it This article is background.

Recently at Tweakers we were also able to test the Intel Arc A380 desktop, with drivers that should be improved in the meantime. We compared it with Nvidia’s GTX 1650 and AMD RX 6400. You can read the full article over here In short, it comes down to this: the Intel GPU has a number of tools that the other two do not have, but it is slower, consumes more power and this is still not recommended.

Of course, Intel also monitors reviews of its hardware, so before I received my Arc laptop, I had a video call with an Intel spokesperson. He assured me that the Arc A350M, the chip in the laptop in question, is not primarily a game card, but is intended for use Create content. From the A550M, which is not yet available, you should be able to count on 1080p60 games, depending on your game settings and graphics of course.

With expectations greatly tempered, I handed the Samsung Galaxy Book2 over to the Tweakers test lab, to get it back a week later, along with 163 test results. You can read how the Galaxy Book2 and in particular the Intel Arc A350M like it in this review.