Acer Announces Entry Into Discrete GPU Market with Intel Arc A770

[Raevenlord]

PC hardware specialist Acer today on Twitter announced its official entry into the discrete GPU market with its own-brand Intel Arc GPUs. The company will be pulling its gaming-oriented Predator branding for the launch of its very own Intel Arc A770, the Predator BiFrost. Despite going in with the newest discrete GPU manufacturer, Acer's attempt at taking on the thin-margin discrete GPU field marks an interesting entry - at least from a design standpoint. The new Arc A770 BiFrost features an asymmetrical dual-fan setup peppered with RGB lighting and industrial detailing throughout in what seems to be a semi-blower-type design. The card's design is somewhat reminiscent of NVIDIA's take on its Founder Editions, with a number of visible screws that help break up the visual continuity. It also sports a dual 8-pin power delivery circuit - beefier than Intel's own take on the Arc A770, which we've just unboxed.

Best-known for its pre-constructed desktops, laptops, and monitors, Acer is now seemingly looking to dip its toes into the discrete GPU market. Unfortunately, Acer's announcement is bereft of details; there's only a render of the card and no actual specifications on whether the company will be offering the 8 GB version Arc A770, its 16 GB cousin, or both. It's also unknown whether the company is planning on extending its reach towards other Arc models or even other manufacturers such as AMD and NVIDIA, but it does make sense that it's forging ahead with a single manufacturer first.





GPUs are some of the more complex electronics assemblies available on personal computers, and the company is sure to test its waters first instead of fully diving into the manufacturing space. We'd still expect the company to take the ASUS/Gigabyte road of offering cards from various manufacturers instead of just one - its Predator branding could certainly support that effort. It seems that some companies are stepping up to fill the GPU space further, even as others - like GPU-darling EVGA - throw their proverbial towels.

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[_JP_]

A blower and an axial??
I guess Acer just thought something like:
"What has nobody ever thought of combining to look cool but have dubious performance gains?"

So you now have none of the cooling advantage and all of the noise!

Wait, that was too negative.

Now you can have both "Whoosh" and "Low pitch whining" in your gaming rig for the ultimate factory floor feeling!

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Semi-blower design? That is ... ... interesting.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

I don't see a separate input for powering the cards RGB, unlike Intels own.

Correct or just a mistake by Acer when rendering the image?

 

[Ferrum Master]

This not their first discrete card for sure.

I remember some ISA cards... acer is really old.

There was some 9500GS also...

 

[trsttte]

A blower and an axial??
I guess Acer just thought something like:
"What has nobody ever thought of combining to look cool but have dubious performance gains?"

So you now have none of the cooling advantage and all of the noise!

It's similar to the current FE cards from nvidia, half the hot air goes straight out, the other half is recirculated in the case (instead of everything getting recirculated as with other cards).

Pretty neat design concept if they don't screw it up

I don't see a separate input for powering the cards RGB, unlike Intels own.

Correct or just a mistake by Acer when rendering the image?

I think it might be correct, Intel solution was just a bit lazy, they could have integrated the RGB on the card instead of having an independent controller like most other components do.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Maybe a blower for the VRM and the axial for the GPU itself? I don't know, seems kind of cool to me.

 

[trsttte]

It's really weird seing who is lining up to do cards for Intel, the initial frontliners are not the usual suspects Asus/Gigabyte/MSI but less known brands like Gunnir and now Acer that doesn't do many discrete components at all (Asrock as well, but they are a pretty common supplier).

 

[agatong55]

It's really weird seing who is lining up to do cards for Intel, the initial frontliners are not the usual suspects Asus/Gigabyte/MSI but less known brands like Gunnir and now Acer that doesn't do many discrete components at all (Asrock as well, but they are a pretty common supplier).

Most of these companies already have an partnership with Intel in the OEM market place so most of these cards will most be put into OEM systems and not for sale individually

 

[evernessince]

A blower and an axial??
I guess Acer just thought something like:
"What has nobody ever thought of combining to look cool but have dubious performance gains?"

So you now have none of the cooling advantage and all of the noise!

Wait, that was too negative.

Now you can have both "Whoosh" and "Low pitch whining" in your gaming rig for the ultimate factory floor feeling!

I think you are indeed being too negative. If they tune the fan RPM profile correctly you can avoid the typical loud blower noise while reducing the amount of hot air dumped into the case. It should also perform better in cases with limited airflow vs a card that dumps all the hot air into the case.

Of course we'll have to wait for a review but it novel design that hopefully proves more than a pretty facade.

 

[ThomasK]

This might very well be the first GPU to feature a blower-style and regular fan for cooling. Looks good tho.

Also, another player just entered the GPU AIB market, which is great to see, after recent news from EVGA.

 

[toddincabo]

me likey

 

[RandallFlagg]

It actually looks really nice. I've never liked the heatsink / plastic shield recirc hot air in your case design that is so common.

Had an affinity for Nvidia's reference design too, until they turned it into a 4-slot paving stone with the 4090.

 

[LabRat 891]

Acer-AIB, Intel-GPU.
Now, there's a combo I never expected to see. Really enjoying the unique aesthetic-direction of the Arc cards so far too.

Arc's launch is looking better than it was; better late than never, I suppose.
Volume availability and Drivers development and support will (IMHO) be what makes or breaks Intel GPUs 'catching on'.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

It's really weird seing who is lining up to do cards for Intel, the initial frontliners are not the usual suspects Asus/Gigabyte/MSI but less known brands like Gunnir and now Acer that doesn't do many discrete components at all (Asrock as well, but they are a pretty common supplier).

Perhaps the regular players weren’t interested in taking the risk, so Intel is doing its “partner” thing where they help with design, perhaps production, and maybe even advertising.

 

[mplayerMuPDF]

The EVGA replacement that everyone has been waiting for...

It actually looks really nice. I've never liked the heatsink / plastic shield recirc hot air in your case design that is so common.

Had an affinity for Nvidia's reference design too, until they turned it into a 4-slot paving stone with the 4090.

yep, that is part of the reason why I got my WX 2100: it is more or less self-sufficient with its cooling and does not pollute my case with hot air. I have no idea actually what my case fan setup is but there is at least one fan that makes a horrible racket and is almost certainly malfunctioning to some degree, so this is a good thing for sure.

 

[GunShot]

I would've put money on it that Dell, RaZer, or even HP would be the next AIB partner after EVGA's demised.

But, Acer?!

 

[lexluthermiester]

What the hell is this nonsense? That is an odd design Acer, damned odd indeed.

 

[InVasMani]

View attachment 263833
What the hell is this nonsense? That is an odd design Acer, damned odd indeed.

I want to see that cooler in more detail without the shrouds. It might not be a bad design actually.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

View attachment 263833
What the hell is this nonsense? That is an odd design Acer, damned odd indeed.

Dual 8 pin connectors no less. Not what one would expect in this price tier. Save on GPU, spend on PSU.

 

[zaku49]

There isn't anything wrong with the cooling design, it's what all of the Nvidia FE cards are doing, half of the air leaves your case, half of it stays, overall, you'll get a cooler case.

 

[INSTG8R]

Interesting design I'm sure their primary thought was for their own OEM Desktops which usually don't put alot of thought into decent airflow.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I want to see that cooler in more detail without the shrouds. It might not be a bad design actually.

That's entirely possible, it just looks goofy. That's all I'm taking issue with. If it performs ok cool.

Dual 8 pin connectors no less. Not what one would expect in this price tier. Save on GPU, spend on PSU.

True. Both of the A770 parts from Intel pull 225W(specs from Intel), perhaps the ACER model pulls more for some factory OCing?

 

[maxfly]

It almost looks like they're trying to create a push/pull with the open fan pushing into the covered/exhaust?
Hmmm

 

[lexluthermiester]

It almost looks like they're trying to create a push/pull with the open fan pushing into the covered/exhaust?
Hmmm

That might be it. Wondering how well that works..