Intel Outs Entry-level Arc A310 Desktop Graphics Card with 96 EUs

[btarunr]

Intel expanded its Arc "Alchemist" desktop graphics card series with the entry-level Arc A310. This GPU has specs that enable Intel's AIB partners to build low-profile graphics cards that are possibly even single-slot, or conventional sized with fanless cooling. The A310 is being pushed as a slight upgrade over the iGPU, and an alternative to cards such as the AMD Radeon RX 6400. Its target user would want to build a 4K or 8K HTPC, or even be a workstation/HEDT user with a processor that lacks integrated graphics, and wants to use a couple of high-resolution monitors. There is no reference board design, but we expect it to look similar to the Arc Pro A40 in dimensions (pictured below), except with full-size DP and HDMI in place of those mDP connectors, and a full-height bracket out of the box.

The A310 is carved out of the 6 nm "ACM-G11" silicon by enabling 6 out of 8 Xe Cores (that's 96 out of 128 EUs, or 768 out of 1,024 unified shaders). You also get 96 XMX units that accelerate AI; and 6 ray tracing units. The GPU runs at 2.00 GHz, compared to 2.10 GHz on the A380. The memory sub-system has been narrowed by a third—you get 4 GB of 15.5 Gbps GDDR6 memory across a 64-bit wide memory interface. In comparison, the A380 has 6 GB of memory across a 96-bit memory bus. The card features a PCI-Express 4.0 x8 host interface, and with its typical power expected to be well under the 75 W-mark, most custom cards could lack any power connectors.



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[Chaitanya]

Would like to see sub $100 card with good encoding capabilities.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Given the A380 already struggles to match the performance of a RX 6400 on a gen 3 bus, I cant imagine how utterly ridiculous this thing will be.

 

[defaultluser]

Given the A380 already struggles to match the performance of a RX 6400 on a gen 3 bus, I cant imagine how utterly ridiculous this thing will be.

yeah, this thing will be just as castrated as 6400, all without the massive cache or modern memory compression of RDNA 1!


I expect it to match gt 1030 gddr5 speed

 

[ixi]

yeah, this thing will be just as castrated as 6400, all without the massive cache or modern memry compression of RDNA 1!


I expect it to match gt 1030 gddr5 speed

Classic wow will run just fine . 50€ gpu?

 

[sam_86314]

If it's like $50, I'll totally get one. I'd expect performance to be around the level of a GTX 750 Ti, so enough for older games (despite poor DX9 support) and more than enough for video with the AV1 codec.

 

[john_]

Excellent for old systems that need a card able to encode/decode all modern codecs, but still it needs to sell for much lower than 100 euros to consider it a good buy.

 

[defaultluser]

Classic wow will run just fine . 50€ gpu?

if its running gddr6 at 15.5, its going to cost at-least a hundred

 

[ixi]

if its running gddr6 at 15.5, its going to cost at-least a hundred

Fine, 51€, I can't go higher . I need to see reviews.

 

[Denver]

Fine, 51€, I can't go higher . I need to see reviews.

If the trend continues, this value won't even pay for the electricity that this low-end GPU consumes.

Jokes aside, 4Gb ddr6 costs more than $40, so your expectation cannot be met.

 

[Valantar]

... so Intel will now sell you an iGPU dGPU to pair up with your KF CPU, is that the thing?

 

[ixi]

If the trend continues, this value won't even pay for the electricity that this low-end GPU consumes.

Jokes aside, 4Gb ddr6 costs more than $40, so your expectation cannot be met.

Hard to guess "real" price. A380 on paper is 129€. Will this gpu really cost 99€...?

 

[cvaldes]

... so Intel will now sell you an iGPU dGPU to pair up with your KF CPU, is that the thing?

I recall seeing a slide showing Intel ARC graphics cores on Raptor Lake CPUs. I forget what Intel called them but they were the rough equivalent of AMD Compute Units I think.

My guess is that they are trying to replace their legacy iGPU cores with this new graphics technology similar to AMD's ongoing transition from Vega to RDNA2 onboard graphics cores.

Having an entry-level discrete card is a useful option for graphics-less CPUs. This appears to be Intel's version of something like the Radeon RX 550 2G.

While they might not be a strong contender for gaming, these low end discrete graphics cards have a place in many commercial situations, like driving multiple monitors for mostly 2D graphics using dedicated VRAM rather than sharing a pool of main memory.

 

[Valantar]

I recall seeing a slide showing Intel ARC graphics cores on Raptor Lake CPUs. My guess is that they are trying to replace their legacy iGPU cores with this new graphics technology similar to AMD's ongoing transition from Vega to RDNA2 onboard graphics cores.

Aren't Arc cores and Xe cores already pretty much the same except for RT?

 

[Denver]

Hard to guess "real" price. A380 on paper is 129€. Will this gpu really cost 99€...?

It's not too hard to predict, knowing the market and the costs involved. Yes, it should be priced at U$ 99

 

[cvaldes]

Aren't Arc cores and Xe cores already pretty much the same except for RT?

I don't know enough about their technology to give you a definitive answer.

With more usage cases and workloads for RT and ML cores with each passing week, it would seem that Intel will include those two technologies in their iGPU roadmap. Same with the hardware media encoder.

 

[Patriot]

Aren't Arc cores and Xe cores already pretty much the same except for RT?

Xe cores are the Arc Cu's
RT cores are below them in the block diagram I can't link for some reason.
XVE are shader cores, XMX are the Matrix engines, its very Vega esq from a compute standpoint almost as if Raja left AMD for Intel.

Appears to have the same die as the A350m, just twice the clocks.

 

[Vayra86]

If the trend continues, this value won't even pay for the electricity that this low-end GPU consumes.

Jokes aside, 4Gb ddr6 costs more than $40, so your expectation cannot be met.

You say jokes aside, but honestly the line you put behind it is even more of a joke: Intel made a product that is economically, completely useless at launch. There is no margin, and if there is, this GPU is far too expensive to make sense Its literally e-waste because of the cost of production versus the end performance.

Xe cores are the Arc Cu's
RT cores are below them in the block diagram I can't link for some reason.
XVE are shader cores, XMX are the Matrix engines, its very Vega esq from a compute standpoint almost as if Raja left AMD for Intel.

Appears to have the same die as the A350m, just twice the clocks.

XXX is Vin Diesel, it doesn't matter how many X'es they put, it won't make either product or movie better One thing is certain... they're good at making abbreviations with an X in it! I bet they had a meeting about it, counting the average/median of X'es in products in the segment, and decided they had to have more of them to beat the competition.

Amsterdam still has best graphics tho
Look at those reflections, ultra real

 

[AusWolf]

Just when I was thinking about getting an A380 to test driver stability across my favourite games before investing in an A770.

 

[Valantar]

Amsterdam still has best graphics tho
Look at those reflections, ultra real

View attachment 263476

Whoa. Is that ray traced?

 

[DeeJay1001]

If memory capacity dictates the price (which it almost certainly does) there is no way this card will come in any cheaper than ~$90 USD

 

[Vayra86]

Whoa. Is that ray traced?

...it runs at 1000 FPS in Paint, too.

 

[wickerman]

Im quite interested in these low profile Arc gpus for plex encoding, and less so for gaming performance. I know im not alone in that interest, especially if intel unlocks all their encoder abilities on the consumer cards. Right now for plex if you want to use an nvidia geforce card you need hacked drivers to unlock that or go with something like an older quadro p2000 to find a reasonably priced card without needing hacked drivers. Without that you're limited to 2 streams, and AMD doesnt really have a good solution either.

I think intel could focus heavily on the multimedia abilities to sell these budget cards, and wouldnt be surprised to see them flat out replace a lot of the low end cards OEMs stuff into their volume products that just need extra display outputs or basic acceleration. The Quadro P620 is still a card popping up in 1L workstations like the lenovo p340 and I'm sure intel can manage to out feature a 2018 pascal part... There is a market for low profile/half height cards out there.

 

[ModEl4]

Seems like $99 SRP intention.
This + a 13100F should be faster than a 6core Desktop Rembrandt in gaming (unless AMD changes the CU number from 6 that mobile Ryzen 5 has to 8 in desktop form)

 

[AlwaysHope]

I look forward to seeing how much these cards will cost here in Australia. They could be nice replacements for my 2 aging HD7870 GHz edition cards from about a decade ago that are still in perfect working order for web browsing today.