Intel Posts Disassembly and PCB Shots of Arc A770 Limited Edition

[btarunr]

Intel Graphics, in its latest teaser video to the Arc A770 Limited Edition "Alchemist" graphics card, posted detailed renders of the card disassembled. The card features a strictly dual-slot cooling solution that uses an aluminium base-plate and a copper vapor-chamber to pull heat from the various hot components of the PCB. This is conveyed by four flat copper heat pipes through an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which is ventilated by a pair of 80 mm fans. The cooler and its backplate feature four independent RGB lighting zones—the bores of each of the two fans, a light strip running along the top of the card; and toward the tail-end of the backplate, with a total of 90 LEDs. Intel claims that the maximum noise output of the cooler is 39 dBA.

The PCB is shorter in length than the cooler itself, and is full-height (and no taller). It draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors, which combined with slot-power add up to 300 W. A 6-phase VRM powers the "ACM-G10" GPU, while there are three other VRM phases, which could power the eight GDDR6 memory chips, and other power domains of the card. Display outputs include three standard-size DisplayPort 2.0, and one HDMI 2.1. The card's host interface is PCI-Express 4.0 x16, and although not a system requirement, Intel insists that the card be used on a machine with PCI resizable-BAR enabled.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[cadaveca]

Looks great.

 

[shovenose]

So when can I buy it?

 

[cvaldes]

So when can I buy it?

My understanding is that Intel has not unveiled a date for this product's launch. Thus any dates you might read on the Internet are all speculative at this time.

My guess is that there are retail A770 boxes sitting in finished goods in warehouses.

It's quite possible that they want to finalize a better driver software build for launch. Driver quality appears to be the critical bottleneck for the Arc cards so far, not any sort of manufacturing issue or inherent flaw with the graphics architecture (which can't be fixed in this generation anyhow).

 

[shovenose]

My understanding is that Intel has not unveiled a date for this product's launch. Thus any dates you might read on the Internet are all speculative at this time.

It's quite possible that they want to finalize a better driver software build for launch. Driver quality appears to be the critical bottleneck for the ARC cards so far, not any sort of manufacturing issue or inherent flaw with the graphics architecture (which can't be fixed in this generation anyhow).

But I want it now. I can update drivers later.

 

[cvaldes]

But I want it now. I can update drivers later.

Patience is a virtue.

Remember that PC hardware reviewers write their reviews based on the driver software available at the moment they put the cards on the test bench. They rarely go back to retest hardware and rewrite their reviews. Intel knows this.

As we have seen from their first card, geographically restricting the launch to one market like the PRC does not dissuade Western tech writers from obtaining the hardware anyhow.

Graphics cards aren't like PSUs or cases where software is not involved. GPU performance is intrinsically tied to software.

Intel may also be waiting to see what Nvidia does at their impending next gen announcement, presumably Tuesday the 20th. No one expects Arc A770 to compete with mid-range/high-end GeForce 40 series cards but if Nvidia reduces MSRP of GeForce 30 series cards, Intel will likely need to take that into consideration on where to slot the A770 in terms of MSRP vis-a-vis comparable GeForce and Radeon cards. So there's a value proposition component to their launch schedule deliberations.

There are probably a couple of other factors that influence the timing of the Arc A770's launch. It's not just about slapping a cooler onto a PCB, putting into a retail box and say, "Ship it."

 

[MrDweezil]

So when can I buy it?

When they say "Limited Edition," they mean it.

 

[ir_cow]

Look like it has been uncancelled eh?

 

[Jimmy_]

ummm...looking great. No doubt on paper these leaks are looking great

 

[Haile Selassie]

Anyone remembers BitBoys and their Glaze3D accelerator?
This.

 

[bonehead123]

hummmm.....

shroud design & cooler set-up, if real, looks nice...

But interestingly, there is no mention of what appears to be a 3pin fan connector in the 2nd pic from the left