Intel
Operating mode
Use this to bias workload recommendations toward responsiveness, background autonomy, lighter serving, or multi-GPU scale-out.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
The Arc A770 16GB is Intel's flagship Alchemist GPU and the most capable consumer Arc card for AI inference. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 — more than many competing cards at the same price — allows it to run 7B models at FP16 or 13B models at Q4 quantization entirely on-GPU. llama.cpp's SYCL backend supports it natively, and performance has improved significantly since launch with driver and oneAPI stack maturation. At roughly 37 tokens/second on LLaMA-2-7B Q4, it offers meaningful throughput for local inference at an accessible price.
Beyond LLMs
What AI tasks this GPU can handle — from text generation to image and video creation.
| Capability | Status | Representative Model |
|---|---|---|
| LLM Chat (7B) | Runs natively | Llama 3.1 8B Q4 |
| LLM Coding (30B) | Won’t fit | Qwen 3 30B Q4 |
| LLM Large (70B) | Won’t fit | Llama 3.1 70B Q4 |
| Image Gen (SDXL) | Runs natively | SDXL 1.0 FP16 |
| Image Gen (Flux) | Won't fit | Flux.1 Dev FP16 |
| Image Gen (SD 3.5) | Runs with sequential offload | SD 3.5 Large FP16 |
| Video Short (25f) | Runs natively | LTX Video 2B |
| Video Long (100f) | Won't fit | Wan Video 14B |
Architecture
Alchemist is Intel's first discrete GPU architecture under the Arc brand, using Xe-HPG cores manufactured on TSMC's N6 process. It features XMX (Xe Matrix Extensions) engines for AI acceleration.
AI Relevance
XMX engines provide some AI inference acceleration via oneAPI/SYCL. However, the software ecosystem for LLM inference on Intel Arc is still developing, with limited runtime support compared to CUDA.
Kaufberatung
Nutzbar für lokale KI mit Einschränkungen
Kann 11 von 50 Top-Modellen ausführen, hauptsächlich kleinere. Größere Modelle benötigen starke Quantisierung oder passen nicht.
16.0 GB
VRAM
$349
UVP
$22/GB
Kosten pro GB VRAM
Beste Modelle für diese GPU
What will limit you first
The raw memory story may look fine, but the software ecosystem is still a constraint here.
Runtime ecosystem is narrower than CUDA
Intel GPUs can look attractive on memory per dollar, but local AI tooling, kernels, and model coverage are still broader and easier on CUDA today.
Best upgrade itinerary
Prefer CUDA if you want the path of least resistance
If your goal is maximum runtime coverage, easier troubleshooting, and better support for new local AI releases, CUDA is usually still the safer upgrade path.
Unlocks 2 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Mehr Spielraum gewünscht? MacBook Pro M3 24GB (24.0 GB unified memory) ist die nächste Stufe.
Cost vs cloud API
Assumes 4 hours/day of active inference at 49 tok/s, Intel Arc A770 16GB amortized over 36 months, US residential electricity ($0.15/kWh), blended cloud pricing at $10 per 1M tokens (GPT-4o / Claude Sonnet tier).
21.3M
Tokens/month at this pace
$13.7
Monthly local cost
$213
Same tokens on cloud API
$0.645
Local $/1M tokens
Break-even: pays for itself in 1.7 months vs cloud API at this workload. Price reference: $349 MSRP.
Chat
SThis model is a direct match for chat. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Coding
SThis model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Agentic Coding
SThis model is still usable for agentic-coding, but it is not the most specialized pick. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
Reasoning
SThis model is a direct match for reasoning. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
RAG
AThis model is a direct match for rag. It sits in the middle of the current model mix. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama.
Qwen 3.5 9BQwen 3 8BQwen 3 14B
Phi-4-reasoning-plus 14BQwen 3.5 4B
Nemotron Nano 8BPhi-4 Mini Reasoning 4B
Ministral 3 14B
GPT-OSS 20B
Jina Embeddings v3
BGE M3Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B InstructQwen 3.5 397B A17BDevstral 2 123B Instruct
Kimi K2.5Kimi K2.6
DeepSeek V4 ProQwen 3.5 27BQwen 3.6 27BQwen 3.5 122B A10BQwen3-VL 30B A3B InstructQwen 3.6 35B A3BDeepSeek V4 FlashQwen 3.5 35B A3BMagistral Small 2507Devstral Small 2 24B InstructQwen 3 32BQwen 3 30B A3BMistral Small 4 119B
Command A 111BQwen 2.5 VL 72BGPT-OSS 120BNemotron 3 Nano 30BQwen3-Coder-NextDevstral Small 1.1
GLM-5.1Pixtral Large 124BGLM-5DeepSeek V3.2Qwen 3 235B A22BQwen3-Coder 480B A35B InstructNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B
Gemma 4 31BLeanstral 119B A6BDeepSeek Coder V2 236BDeepSeek R1 671BDeepSeek V3.1 671B
EXAONE 4.0 32BGemma 4 26B A4BFast erreichbar
Hochwertige Modelle, die etwas mehr Speicher benötigen
Image & Video Generation
31 of 52 models can generate images or video on your Intel Arc A770 16GB
| Model | Max Resolution | Gen Time | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD TurboImage | 512×512 | ~3.1s | S |
| Stable Diffusion 1.5Image | 512×768 | ~6.3s | S |
| Realistic Vision v5.1Image | 512×768 | ~6.3s | S |
| DreamShaper 8Image | 512×768 | ~6.3s | S |
| LCM DreamShaper v7Image | 512×768 | ~1.9s | S |
| PixArt-SigmaImage | 1024×1024 | ~25.2s | S |
| FramePack I2VVideo | 256×256 | ~46.2s/frame | S |
| SDXL TurboImage | 512×512 | ~3.1s | S |
| SDXL LightningImage | 1024×1024 | ~9.4s | S |
| Stable Diffusion XL 1.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~25.2s | S |
| Playground v2.5Image | 1024×1024 | ~37.8s | S |
| RealVisXL v5.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| DreamShaper XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Juggernaut XL v9Image | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Animagine XL 3.1Image | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Pony Diffusion V6 XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Animagine XL 4.0Image | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Illustrious XLImage | 1024×1024 | ~28.3s | S |
| Wan Video 2.1 1.3BVideo | 256×256 | ~18.4s/frame | S |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 MediumImage | 256×256 | ~2m 12s | S |
| Flux.2 Klein 4BImage | 256×256 | ~17s | S |
| LTX Video 2BVideo | 256×256 | ~21.9s/frame | S |
| KolorsImage | 256×256 | ~2m 14s | A |
| Stable CascadeImage | 1024×1024 | ~1m 3s | B |
| AuraFlow v0.3Image | 256×256 | ~3m 44s | B |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 LargeImage | 256×256 | ~6m 14s | B |
| Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large TurboImage | 256×256 | ~1m 8s | B |
| CogVideoX 2BVideo | 256×256 | ~21.9s/frame | D |
| HunyuanVideoVideo | 256×256 | ~46.2s/frame | D |
| ChromaImage | 256×256 | ~25.2s | D |
| Z-Image TurboImage | 256×256 | ~52s | D |
| Flux.1 DevImage | 256×256 | ~1m 53s | F |
| Flux.1 SchnellImage | 256×256 | ~22s | F |
| LTX Video 13BVideo | 256×256 | ~46.2s/frame | F |
| Flux.1 Kontext DevImage | 256×256 | ~2m 6s | F |
| AnimateDiff v1.5.3Video | 512×768 | ~11.5s/frame | F |
| Cosmos Diffusion 7BVideo | 256×256 | ~36.1s/frame | F |
| CogVideoX 5BVideo | 256×256 | ~31.5s/frame | F |
| Wan2.2 TI2V 5BVideo | 256×256 | ~31.5s/frame | F |
| Flux.2 Klein 9BImage | 256×256 | ~12.6s | F |
| Flux.1 Fill DevImage | 256×256 | ~1m 47s | F |
| Mochi 1 PreviewVideo | 256×256 | ~41.6s/frame | F |
| HunyuanVideo 1.5Video | 256×256 | ~38.6s/frame | F |
| Helios 14BVideo | 256×256 | ~47.6s/frame | F |
| SkyReels V2 14BVideo | 256×256 | ~47.6s/frame | F |
| Wan Video 2.1 14BVideo | 256×256 | ~47.6s/frame | F |
| Wan Video 2.2 14BVideo | 256×256 | ~47.6s/frame | F |
| Qwen ImageImage | 256×256 | ~42.4s | F |
| Qwen Image EditImage | 256×256 | ~42.4s | F |
| Flux.2 DevImage | 256×256 | ~19m 51s | F |
| MAGI-1Video | 256×256 | ~59.1s/frame | F |
| HunyuanImage 3.0Image | 256×256 | ~1m 15s | F |
Image models estimated at 1024×1024 (28 steps, FP16). Video models estimated at 768×512 (25 frames, 30 steps, FP16). Actual performance varies with runtime and system load.
Upgrade paths
See what you unlock with more powerful hardware
Upgrade-Optionen
Unlocks 2 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
ca. $1,099 MSRP
Intel Arc Pro B60 24GBBestes Preis-Leistungs-VerhältnisUnlocks 36 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
ca. $599 MSRP
Gaudi 3 128GBIntel-UpgradeUnlocks 68 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Lifts average decode speed across fitting models by about 176%.
ca. $15,000 MSRP
Unlocks 81 additional models that do not fit on the current setup.
Lifts average decode speed across fitting models by about 280%.
ca. $8,000 MSRP
Intel Arc A770 16GB (16 GB VRAM) can run these top models: Qwen 3.5 9B (score: 95/100), Qwen 3 8B (score: 93/100), Qwen 3 14B (score: 91/100). See the full compatibility list above.
Intel Arc A770 16GB has 16 GB of VRAM available for AI model inference. This determines which models and quantization levels you can run locally.
Yes, Intel Arc A770 16GB is excellent for running LLMs locally with top compatibility scores above 80/100.
For coding on Intel Arc A770 16GB, we recommend Qwen 3.5 9B. It achieves 49.3 tokens per second with 58K context window. This model is a direct match for coding. It belongs to a current frontier family for local AI. It fits natively with comfortable headroom. Known channels: huggingface, ollama, lm-studio.
There are 4 upgrade path(s) from Intel Arc A770 16GB: MacBook Pro M3 24GB, Intel Arc Pro B60 24GB. Upgrading would unlock larger models and faster inference speeds.
Intel Arc A770 16GB can run Flux.1 Dev with sequential offloading or at a lower precision (FP8/NF4). The Schnell variant is faster and fits more easily. For best results, use ComfyUI with model offloading enabled.
Intel Arc A770 16GB (16 GB VRAM) can handle various AI generation tasks beyond LLMs. For image generation, SDXL and Stable Diffusion 3.5 run well. For video, LTX Video 2.3 can generate short clips. Check the AI Capability Matrix above for detailed compatibility.
Intel Arc A770 16GB is good for AI image generation. It handles SDXL and SD 3.5 well, and can run Flux with some optimization. 16 GB of usable memory is sufficient for most image generation workflows at standard resolutions.
Qwen 3.5 27B needs ~16.5 GB at Q4_K_M, which is tight for Intel Arc A770 16GB with 16 GB. You can run the 9B variant at Q8 (9.6 GB) for excellent quality, or try the 35B-A3B MoE variant at Q4 if it fits your context needs.
With 16 GB on Intel Arc A770 16GB, use Q8_0 for 8B models (best quality), Q4_K_M for 14B models (good balance), and Q4_K_M with limited context for larger models. Avoid going below Q4 — quality drops sharply at Q2-Q3.
Intel Arc A770 16GB has enough memory for many local LLMs, but bandwidth still matters a lot for real speed. Once a model fits, a faster-memory GPU can feel significantly better than a slower setup with similar capacity.
Intel Arc A770 16GB can be attractive on memory-per-dollar, but CUDA still has the broadest support across runtimes, kernels, guides, and community-tested local AI workflows. If your priority is the easiest setup and widest model compatibility, NVIDIA remains the safer choice. If your priority is value and you are comfortable with a narrower software stack, Intel Arc A770 16GB can still be useful.
Compare with similar
