ASRock Launches Its First Intel Arc Graphics Card, Meet The Arc A380 Challenger ITX For $192 US
The ASRock Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX graphics card is a very entry-level variant compared to the GUNNIR Arc A380 Photon which features a dual-fan design. The Intel Arc A380 Challenger features a single-fan which is based on a Striped-Axial design pattern to maximize airflow & also has the 0dB fan technology which ensures that the fans do no spin and generate unwanted noise when running at low loads. The graphics card’s sides feature the “Intel Arc” branding and it has a singular 8-pin connector for power. It features a spiral aluminum heatsink which should be good enough to cool the card. The ASRock Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX graphics card operates at a base frequency of 2250 MHz and memory is clocked at 15.5 Gbps across a 96-bit bus interface for 186 GB/s of total bandwidth. The GPU is based on the Alchemist ACM-G11 SKU, featuring 8 Xe-Cores or 1024 ALUs. The card comes rated with a 500W PSU requirement and features a single HDMI 2.0b and three DisplayPort 2.0 (w/ DSC) ports. There’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory which is the highest we have seen on this gen’s entry-level cards and since the whole thing is designed around the ITX form factor, it measures 190 x 124 x 39 mm.
Intel Arc A-Series Desktop Graphics Card Lineup ‘Official’:
It is interesting that ASRock is now the only vendor at the moment that is making both Intel and AMD discrete graphics cards. It is likely that more of the prominent AIBs such as MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte will be adding Arc graphics to their lineup soon as we get closer to the launch of the high-end Arc 7 series graphics cards which are expected to launch this Summer. The pricing for ASRock’s Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX graphics card does seem a bit on the high side as JD.com lists it as 1299 RMB ($192 US) which is the same as the more premium GUNNIR Photon variant. It looks like you have to pay extra for the ITX design.
