The Intel Arc A380 is one of the cards that the chip giant has developed for its return to the dedicated graphics business. If until now we had only seen the versions for laptops now it is the first time we see a desktop model.
You already know that Intel has decided (perhaps out of necessity due to the delay in the launch) to begin its new graphic journey in China and with models that will be installed on OEM equipment. It shouldn’t take too long to market them at retail for consumer purchase, because both NVIDIA and AMD are preparing their new generations with the GeForce RTX 40 and Radeon RX 7000. But that will be another story.
Intel Arc A380 from MSI
Chinese retailer JD, one of the largest in Asia, has listed a computer from MSI that has the interest of being the first where we see a dedicated Intel desktop. The equipment is from the MAG series and includes a Z690-A chipset board for Intel Alder Lake processors, with models to choose from up to Core i7-12700KF or Core i5-12400F, and a hardware base with 8 GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.
The most interesting of the configuration is the aforementioned Intel Arc A380. It is an entry-level model (Intel will market at least 3 other higher performance cards) with a graphics core ACM-G11 and eight Xe cores. It includes 6 GB of dedicated memory and its bus is 96 bits.
The manufacturer of the card is not mentioned, but considering that it is an MSI team, it will surely be its own version. The name is also indicated ‘OC’ indicating its ability to be overclocked or already factory overclocked above Intel benchmarks. The computer’s power supply is 650 watts, relatively low in power, which would indicate that the consumption of the graphics card would not be high.
MSI provides basic information on graphics card performance at 1080p resolution in esports titles, with frames per second ranging from 85 to 200 FPS depending on the game. We do not have, therefore, concrete performance data, but we will surely know it as soon as these OEM equipment are commercialized.
The story here is what we have been talking about since we learned of Intel’s return to the dedicated business: the giant has the potential, talent and resources to become a consistent alternative and its return is welcome as the third major GPU manufacturer to compete with NVIDIA and AMD.
