When Intel announced the launch of Arc, its own line of graphics cards, generated a lot of buzz around it. Not only because of its hypothetical potential, but also because of how it would stack up against rivals with much more experience in the sector, such as NVIDIA. Last March we got to know the first generation of GPUs for laptops in more detail, and now it’s the turn of desktop models.
Intel Arc desktop graphics keep the familiar naming scheme: A3, A5 and A7. Logically, the first remains as the input range and the rest are mid-range and high-end, respectively. However, don’t expect anything too surprising in terms of specifications.
In principle there will be four desktop GPUs available in the Intel Arc line: A380, A580, A750 and A770. If we are guided only by the table of technical characteristics, it is clear that they have potential. In any case, until they are available we will not know if they really fulfill what they promise. As for prices and release dates, we still have no news.
Main features of desktop Intel Arc graphics
Intel Arc A380 | Intel Arc A580 | Intel Arc A750 | Intel Arc A770 | |
Xe cores | 8 | 24 | 28 | 32 |
mhz | 2,000 | 1,700 | 2,050 | 2,100 |
VRAM memory (GDDR6) | 6GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8/16GB |
ray tracing units | 8 | 24 | 28 | 32 |
memory bandwidth | 186GB/s | 512GB/s | 512GB/s | 560GB/s |
XMX Engines | 128 | 384 | 448 | 512 |
In the case of the Arc A770, Intel explained that most models made by its partners based on this GPU will have 8 GB of VRAM. The 16 GB will only be available in a limited edition of the card that Intel itself will launch on the market. The rest of the specifications will remain the same.
Last August, Intel showed off the first benchmarks of the Arc A750. According to the company, with said GPU it was able to achieve 3-5% performance advantage over an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 running with the same configuration. This was based on results obtained by comparing the performance of around 50 games with high graphics at 1440p and Ultra at 1080p. However, they also clarified that Intel Arc graphics will work better with APIs like Vulkan or DirectX 12.
It is clear that these performance tests must be taken with a grain of salt, as they are obtained in highly controlled environments and configured to obtain the best results. As we said before, until users have access to Intel Arc graphics, we will not know for sure how accurate the information is.
Those directed by Pat Gelsinger promise that there will be news about its availability very soon. We will be attentive to the news.