Intel’s line of high-end graphics cards are nearing their retail launch, and that means we’re getting more answers to crucial market questions regarding pricing, launch dates, performance, and availability. Today, Intel answered more A700 series GPU questions, and they’ve been paired with claims to. All A card in the Arc A700 series swings an 18-month-old RTX 3060 from Nvidia.
After announcing a $329 price tag for the A770 GPU earlier this week, Intel has clarified that it will launch three A700-series products on October 12: the aforementioned Arc A770 for $329, which has 8GB of GDDR6 memory; An additional limited edition Arc A770 for $349, which jumps up to 16GB of GDDR6 with slightly higher memory bandwidth and other similar sports specs; and the slightly weaker A750 Limited Edition for $289.
If you missed the memo on the $300 GPU when it was announced, the A750 LE is essentially an assembled version of the A770 chipset with 87.5 percent shaders and ray tracing (RT) units turned on, along with On-the-go push clock is slightly reduced (2.05GHz, compared to 2.1GHz on both A770 models).
Intel Corporation Already confirmed New purchases of Arc A700 series GPUs made by January 2023 will come with a range of downloadable games and software, including this year’s new version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IIAnd the Gotham Knightsand more.
Before independent benchmarks, GPUs had a bewildering “performance per dollar” metric
In a conference call with the press, Intel representatives declined to clarify the number of initial shipments for the first three A700-series GPUs, other than suggesting a drop in stock for the larger A770 LE memory: “I think we’ll sell out,” Intel graphics associate Tom Petersen told Ars. He was reluctant to clarify whether he expects early sales of Intel A700 GPUs, “We don’t know if we’ll have a supply problem or a demand problem. I hope we have a demand issue.” He then confirmed that Intel plans to produce its own GPU models over time, rather than cutting “LE” production while demand may still exist.
Unfortunately, Intel doubled down on the GPU availability question by not confirming which Additional Board (AIB) partners will be part of the October launch of the A700 series. Petersen started this off by suggesting that third-party GPU manufacturers would release their own ads, then mentioned an interest in expanding the list of Arc-powered AIBs.