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Now that Intel has finally launched its Arc Alchemist line of GPUs in the US, it appears to be doing most of the heavy lifting itself. So far the only cards we’ve seen for sale are Intel-branded. ASRock and Acer have partnered with Intel, but the usual suspects haven’t: Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. However, now it appears Gigabyte has begun selling Arc cards too, but it’s not crowing about it. Before you get your hopes up, it’s only selling them abroad, and it’s just the low-end models for now.
Gigabyte appears to be selling the two low-end Arc models at select stores in Russia and Kazakhstan. Those models include the A310 and A380, which are both entry-level GPUs. The A380 was first reviewed in June of this year, but it was pretty disappointing. A lot has changed since that time with regard to Intel’s drivers, so it’s possible it’s a better experience now. Gigabyte is selling these GPUs at Citilink, DNS, and Rino, according to Tom’s Hardware, even though they’re not listed on the Gigabyte website currently. Gigabyte is selling an A310 with 4GB of memory for Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs. It’s also selling two versions of the A380; a dual-fan model and an overclocked version with a huge triple fan cooler. The cards range in price from $141 to $193.
One of Gigabyte’s Arc A380s has a seemingly unnecessary triple-fan cooler.
News of Gigabyte’s adoption of Arc is promising in that it signals the company could be working on selling the more powerful A750 and A770 versions. Previously it was reported that Intel was having difficulty finding partners for Arc because the company wasn’t being flexible enough with pricing and RMA policies, but it appears to have gotten through to Gigabyte. Plus, Intel was targeting system integrators and OEMs at launch, at least in Europe. Therefore, having a big retail presence wasn’t a priority for Intel. It’s unclear if that’s changed now that the GPUs have finally shipped.
Intel’s first discrete Arc GPU launched in China first, and received negative reviews stateside.
This certainly makes us intrigued about Gigabyte’s plans, though. Perhaps this far-flung retail operation is a test before it begins making the beefier GPUs. Maybe it’s even considering selling them in the US, assuming that doesn’t interfere with any contracts it has with AMD and Nvidia. Many gamers are all about competition, so we’re not the only ones who would love to see Intel grab more big-name partners for Arc.
We reported on the slow-motion train wreck that was the long, never-ending road to launch for Arc. Now that it’s in gamers’ hands though, people seem pretty satisfied. Intel has also stated that it’s continuing work on the next generation of Arc, dubbed Battlemage. Intel says it’s targeting a 200-225W GPU with a single power cable as the “sweet spot.” It’s doubtful Intel will ever compete with AMD and Nvidia on the high-end. But not everyone is gaming at 4K, so Intel is targeting a large swath of customers.
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