Intel Arc A380 graphics card started retail sales in Russia

Russian retail chain DNS has announced the start of sales of the entry-level Intel Arc A380 graphics gas pedal.
The new graphics card is available in non-standard MSI Arc A380 Low Profile 6G version, which is designed for compact computers.Image source: DNSThe graphics card is based on the Intel ACM-G11 graphics processor.
It has 8 Xe cores, 8 ray tracing blocks and 128 XMX matrix engines.
The chip has no factory overclocking and works in the frequency range from 2000 to 2450 MHz.
The card has 6GB of GDDR6 memory with an effective frequency of 15.5GHz, 96-bit bus support and a bandwidth of 186GB/s.
The MSI Arc A380 Low Profile 6G graphics card has a compact cooling system with two fans.
Interestingly, the Arc A380 Photon version by Gunnir has been available for purchase through the Ozon online marketplace for some time now.
Gunnir's version has a more powerful full-size cooling system with two fans and is priced from 13,299 rubles.
It should be noted that if you order a graphics card from Ozon, you have to wait for the delivery from China.
In the case of the MSI Arc A380, which is offered in DNS itself.We should add that Gunnir's version has been in the 3DNews test lab.
Among the pluses of this graphics card are a hardware encoder, ray tracing technology support and 6 Gbytes of memory, which is more than its direct competitors.
However, the card can hardly be called a gaming one.

ASRock's Intel Arc A380 graphics card started selling in Europe, price €189

ASRock started selling the entry-level Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX graphics gas pedal in European markets.
In the German electronics store Mindfactory the novelty is priced at €189 (including VAT) and is ready to ship to customers.Image source: ASRockThis is probably the first Intel Arc A380 version to finally make its way to Europe.
Released much earlier, the Arc A380 Photon from Chinese company Gunnir has not made it to European store shelves yet.
The graphics card can only be purchased at online marketplaces like JD.com and also in USA e.g.
Newegg.ASRock Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX has a compact cooling system which includes aluminum monoblock radiator and one 100mm fan.
The graphics card is only 190mm long.
It will fit nicely into a very compact ITX-format motherboard.
Source image: Mindfactory.eThe Intel Arc A380 is based on the Alchemist ACM-G11.
It consists of 8 graphic Xe-core.
The card has on board 6 GB of GDDR6 memory with an effective frequency of 15.5 GHz (15.5 Gb/s).
For novelties factory overclocking of the graphics processor is declared.
The chip runs at 2250 MHz, which is 250 MHz higher than the reference value.
In spite of this, the indicator of power consumption of graphics cards has remained the same and is the reference 75W.
The gas pedal got one 8-pin connector for additional power.

Intel Arc A380 video card was taught to mine Ethereum, but it doesn't do it very efficiently

Nanominer, a cryptocurrency mining software developer, added support for Intel Arc graphics gas pedals to its software.
This is the first such solution.
Recall that officially Intel Arc graphics cards do not support mining.Image source: Red Panda MiningAccording to VideoCardz, the new software has already been tested by cryptominers.
The latter confirmed that the Intel card has indeed learned to mine cryptocurrency - but not very effectively.
The Arc A380 is the only Arc graphics card officially available so far.
Its performance in Ethereum cryptocurrency mining is 10.2 Mhash/s without optimizations.
If we take into account that the typical power consumption of the card is 75W (confirmed by mining tests), the efficiency is very low - worse than, for example, the GeForce GTX 1660.It is explained that the Intel card in mining suffers from low memory bus size (96-bit), as well as a relatively small number of graphics cores (8 cores Xe).
Therefore, this Arc A380 provides an efficiency of 0.136 Mhash/s per watt of power consumption, below the average of 0.38 Mhash/s for most popular GPU models.
Intel Arc A380 in ETH miningThe Arc A380 can mine Ethereum (ETH) or Ethereum Classic (ETC) depending on the settings.
This is due to the fact that the DAG size for Ethereum is 5127 Mbytes, while the Arc A380 card has 4832 Mbytes of memory available to the user.
The card itself has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on board, but some of it is spent on operating system graphics.
Intel Arc A380 in mining Ethereum Classic (ETH) is expected to switch to Proof of Stake model in September, so mining this altcoin on any video card will not be possible.For this case Nanominer supports automatic algorithm change for Ethereum Classic (ETC) mining, as demonstrated by Red Panda Mining blogger in the video above.

Intel Arc A380 graphics card tested for compatibility with 50 games of different years - the result surpassed the expectations

German edition of PC Games Hardware managed to get hold of Intel Arc A380 graphics gas pedal and conducted its full-scale testing.
However, journalists didn't focus on the graphics performance of this graphics card, but on its compatibility with popular games, having tested it in 50 projects released between 1999 and 2022.Image source: VideoCardzAt the moment, Intel graphics have serious problems with games using not the latest graphics API DirectX 11 and DirectX 9.
As Intel itself said earlier, it's focusing on optimizing Arc graphics for games with Vulkan and DirectX 12.
In other words, we should expect very mediocre performance from Arc cards in old gaming tittles.
We should clarify that Intel didn't refuse to optimize old games on old APIs.
The recently released Arc Graphics Driver 31.0.101.3276 Beta removes a large part of the problems with game compatibility and the functionality of the Arc Control software for managing Intel Arc graphics.
However, the company still has a lot of problems and bugs related to its graphics card software to fix.PC Games Hardware notes that most of the games tested on the Arc A380 graphics card, including very old ones, were compatible with Arc graphics, which is a very good result, especially considering that Intel is a newcomer to the discrete graphics market.
With problematic games, journalists noticed visual artifacts when using SSAO and HBAO+ anti-aliasing settings, texture problems and freezes.
The only game out of 50 that refused to run on Arc A380 was Max Payne 2.
This game uses a DirectX 8 API.
A full list of tested games and information on their compatibility with the Arc A380 can be found in the table below.
Green marked games that work without problems, yellow - bugs, red - critical errors.
Source image: PC Games HardwareWhich writes portal VideoCardz, Intel will likely introduce a more productive graphics gas pedals Arc 7 series (A750 and A770) next month.
These graphics cards can compete with the most popular models of NVIDIA and AMD current generation.
However Intel solutions will not be able to compete with the flagships.
Also not too good for Intel is the fact that these companies in the near future will present graphics cards on new architectures, which would complicate the Intel's position even more.

Intel Arc A380 graphics cards will soon start to be officially sold outside of China

Intel Arc A380 discrete graphics cards start to appear in US stores, writes VideoCardz.
For several months since its release they were sold only in China.
At first they were only sold as part of a ready-made computer assembly, but later they began to be offered as an individual product.
Now the novelties have made it to the U.S.
retail.Image source: VideoCardzThe ASRock Arc A380 Challenger ITX model, introduced back in early July, recently made its way to the U.S.
retailer Newegg, which priced it at $ 140.
For comparison, in China it is priced at $192.
The version from ASRock uses a non-standard PCB design and features a cooling system with a single fan.
The claimed power consumption level of the gas pedal is 75W.
It is equipped with one 8-pin connector for additional power.
Three DisplayPort 2.0 and one HDMI 2.0 interface are provided in the graphics interface set.Picture source: NeweggThe ACM-G11 chip inside the graphics gas pedal has eight Xe cores and is factory overclocked.
It runs at a frequency of 2250 MHz.
The card has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory with 96-bit interface support.
According to independent reviews, the performance of Intel Arc A380 falls short of Radeon RX 6400 - the weakest AMD's current generation card.
However, after additional overclocking, the card is able to compete with more efficient GeForce GTX 1650 from NVIDIA.According to US-based Newegg, shipments of ASRock Arc A380 Challenger ITX graphics card will start August 22nd.

Intel itself tested a non-standard Arc A380 graphics card and called it a good option for mainstream gaming

Intel's lab found the GUNNIR Arc A380 Photon desktop graphics gas pedal in a non-standard version, arriving from China.
Information about its testing shared on his page on Twitter, one of the top managers of the company Ryan Shrout.Image source: Twitter / Ryan ShroutThe Arc Alchemist series desktop graphics card is currently available for purchase only in China.
Intel is still not saying when its discrete graphics solutions will start appearing outside of the Celestial Empire and does not even name their recommended price.At Shrout's disposal were two GUNNIR Arc A380 Photon 6G OC graphics cards at once.
Recall that at their core are graphics processors ACM-G11 with eight cores Xe and a working frequency of 2.45 GHz.
The gas pedal has 6 GB of memory GDDR6 with 96-bit bus support and 15.5 Gbit / s per contact.Arc A380 model is positioned as a solution for games in 1080p resolution at medium graphics settings.
As part of the test on it ran the game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds at a resolution of 2560 × 1080 pixels.
A representative of Intel concluded that the novelty is a good option for mainstream gaming.
Previously, independent tests have shown that the Arc A380 - this is an entry-level graphics card, with performance slightly lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 and AMD Radeon RX 6400.In China, the gas pedal including local currency conversion offered for about 130-140 dollars.
Schrout noted the high build quality of the non-refresh version of the graphics card on his Twitter page.In addition to the Arc 380, Intel is going to release desktop graphics cards Arc A550, Arc A730 and Arc A770 this summer, but more precise information about the timing of availability has not yet been disclosed.

Intel Arc A380 released: slower and more expensive than Radeon RX 6400, and AMD Ryzen chips perform worse than Core

First Intel Arc Alchemist desktop graphics card has officially gone on sale.
But only in China for now.
Many Chinese media have published their reviews of the novelty, comparing it with competitors.
Yesterday from the first similar publication it was clear that Intel Arc A380 is weaker than its main competitor Radeon RX 6400.
New reviews only confirmed these conclusions and also showed that the new graphics does not get along too well with AMD Ryzen chips.
Image source: MyDriversThe Arc A380 Photon OC graphics card from Gunnir took part in all tests.
At the moment this is the only brand that has released a non-reference variant of the Intel gas pedal.
This version of the graphics card has an overclocked GPU (2450 MHz instead of the reference 2000 MHz) and slightly higher (92 W vs.
standard 75 W) level of power consumption compared to the reference version.Image source: MyDriversWccftech has got official Intel data, in which the company itself compares Arc A380 with GeForce GTX 1650 and Radeon RX 6400.
According to the table, Arc A380 is weaker than both graphics cards mentioned above.
The Arc A380's official performance data.
Image source: Intel / WccftechPortal MyDrivers pitted the Arc A380 against the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti so that the new model has at least some chance of winning.
And in this case, in almost all games, the Intel card was indeed faster than the GeForce model, released back in 2016.Image source: MyDriversAs some reviews have shown, the performance of Arc A380 in systems with AMD processors was lower than in similar systems based on Intel.
For example, in combination with AMD Ryzen 5 5600, the gas pedal proved to be 17% worse than in a PC based on Intel processor of the same level.
It's likely that this is why Intel recommends using the Arc A380 only in ResizableBAR-enabled PCs and does not guarantee the Arc A380's full performance on systems with similar AMD Smart Access Memory technology.
Intel Arc A380 performance combined with an AMD processor.
Image source: BilibiliAccording to various sources, the Intel Arc A380 can be found at Chinese retailers for 1,399 to 1,499 yuan ($210 to $225), which is more expensive than its recommended price, which is about $150, and more expensive than the Radeon RX 6400.
Some retailers offer the Arc A380 as part of off-the-shelf systems based on older 10th generation Intel Core processors.

Intel Arc A380 fails miserably in first review - up to 26% slower than Radeon RX 6400

Intel has lifted the ban on publishing reviews of its Arc A380 desktop graphics card.
And in the first independent test the novelty with a bang lost even the entry level model AMD Radeon RX 6400.Image source: Bilibili / ShenmedounengceThe non-standard Gunnir Arc A380 Photon graphics card was tested by Chinese reviewer Shenmedounengce, who checked the novelty in synthetic 3DMark tests, as well as in a number of games.
And if in the first case, the novelty showed itself quite well, then with games the situation was much worse.
The card has been tested with Core i5-12400 processor, Intel B660 motherboard and DDR4 RAM.
For comparison with the Intel Arc A380, the reviewer used GeForce RTX 3050, GeForce GTX 1650, as well as Radeon RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 graphics cards.
The Intel Arc A380 is based on the ACM-G11 graphics processor, which includes eight Xe cores running at 2.45 GHz.
The gas pedal got 6 GB of GDDR6 memory with 92 bit bus support and 15.5 Gbit/s per pin.In 3DMark benchmarks Intel's card performed well.
In the Timespy test, Intel's new product confidently beat the GeForce GTX 1650, Radeon RX 6400 and RX 6500 XT graphics cards, and not too significantly behind the GeForce RTX 3050.
In the 3DMark Port Royal test, which evaluates gas pedals in ray tracing, the Intel Arc A380 was almost twice as fast as the Radeon RX 6400 and RX 6500 XT, but still was more than 3.5 times slower than the GeForce RTX 3050.
The game tests used were League of Legends, PUBG, GTA V, Shadow of Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
All were run at 1080p resolution.
Unfortunately, in none of them the Arc A380 was able to catch up even with the youngest Radeon RX 6400 model.
At best, the gap was about 7%, and in some games Intel gas pedal lost in terms of performance by 26%.
Recall that the launch of the Intel Arc A380 took place only in China.
In the official sale of the new product has not yet appeared.
Its declared recommended price is about $150.