Wednesday, April 26th 2023
Sparkle Re-Enters GPU Market with Intel Arc Alchemist Graphics Cards
Sparkle, a Taiwanese computer electronics maker, is again entering the GPU market after almost ten years of inactivity in the space. A while back, Sparkle was one of NVIDIA's original Add-In Board (AIB) partners and helped them launch the GeForce 7900 PCI GPU. The company continued to make NVIDIA-based GPUs until GTX 700 series in 2013. After a decade, Sparkle is back again with ambitions to be Intel's AIB partner and announced not one but three graphics cards to start. Called A750 Titan, A750 Orc, and A380 Elf, these cards feature triple-fan, dual-fan, and single-fan coolers, respectively.
The first in line is the Sparkle A750 Titan, a triple-fan, 2.5-slot design based on Intel Arc A750 GPU. Featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, this top-end A750 SKU is clocked at 2300 MHz, up from the factory's 2050 MHz frequency. Titan's smaller brother is Sparkle A750 Orc, a dual-fan, "2.2"-slot (we assume smaller than two and a half and bigger than two slots) GPU with the same A750 GPU; however, it clocked slightly lower at 2200 MHz. Both models feature single HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0 output ports and require two 8-pin PCI power connectors. Lastly, we have the Sparkle A380 Elf, a half-length, ITX-sized GPU that fits in two slots and has a single-fan cooler. It is based on Intel Arc A380 and has identical specifications without factory overclocks applied. Pricing and availability are currently unknown.
Sources:
Sparkle, via Tom's Hardware
The first in line is the Sparkle A750 Titan, a triple-fan, 2.5-slot design based on Intel Arc A750 GPU. Featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, this top-end A750 SKU is clocked at 2300 MHz, up from the factory's 2050 MHz frequency. Titan's smaller brother is Sparkle A750 Orc, a dual-fan, "2.2"-slot (we assume smaller than two and a half and bigger than two slots) GPU with the same A750 GPU; however, it clocked slightly lower at 2200 MHz. Both models feature single HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0 output ports and require two 8-pin PCI power connectors. Lastly, we have the Sparkle A380 Elf, a half-length, ITX-sized GPU that fits in two slots and has a single-fan cooler. It is based on Intel Arc A380 and has identical specifications without factory overclocks applied. Pricing and availability are currently unknown.
9 Comments on Sparkle Re-Enters GPU Market with Intel Arc Alchemist Graphics Cards
Lets get kickin the A380 150$ Card with 6GB, Quicksync and AV1,
Nvidia have the lowered 1650 alias 1630 and AMD the 6400 (PCIe 4.0 x4 for same Performance as 1650 on PCIE 3.0) both of them have 4GB and cant even AV1 nor Quicksync.
Sparkle was a bit of a powerhouse R&D lab as well. They constantly made much weirder designs than anyone else in the industry to try and push the limits of what was possible. A completely passively cooled 8800 GT, GTS 250 in a half-height card, a triple-slot 8800 GTX with a built in peltier cooler, a single-slot GTX 580, a cooler with hinges and a motor to automatically adjust airflow across the card... There are more I'm forgetting, I'm sure.
I can't even count the amount of years that passed since ive last heard of them.