MSI Introduces Its First Intel Arc A380 GPU, A Low Profile Card For Prebuilts

August 6, 2022

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The only Arc graphics cards we’ve seen so far have been a couple of “Limited Edition” models of the higher-end parts and then of course the Gunnir Arc A380 Photon card. The fact that nearly a month out from their rumored release the only available desktop Arc parts were the Gunnir cards was causing some folks to doubt the validity of Arc as a desktop part at all.

Well don’t fret too much, because now there’s a couple more Arc cards out in the wild. Some keen eyes spotted some ASRock boards last week, and now on Chinese retailer Tmall, there’s an MSI desktop machine available sporting entry-level Intel processors paired with MSI-branded Arc A380 graphics cards.

tmall msi arc pc listing — <em>The TMall listing for the MSI PC in question.</em>

The specific model included in these computers appears to be a low-profile card. That’s a perfect use case for the A380 GPU. In fact, this card makes a lot more sense all around than the Gunnir Photon product—it doesn’t have a peripheral power connector, and a duo of display connections fits just perfectly on a low-profile board.

Performance-wise, the specifications appear to be identical to Intel’s reference models, with the A380 GPU clocked at a nominal 2 GHz and its 6GB of GDDR6 memory running at 15.5 Gbps. MSI’s specs on the page seem to recommend a 350 watt power supply for the card, which is sort of refreshing after all those rumors about NVIDIA’s next-gen.

msi arc pc model tiers — <em>The specifications of the three tiers of the MSI pre-built.</em>

We weren’t too impressed with the Gunnir card we saw before because it seemed overbuilt and excessive for a tiny little GPU like the DG2-128. This MSI product, on the other hand, could be quite attractive as a low-power option for SFF PCs where you still want some gaming chops, or as a secondary GPU for AV1 encoding in a gaming PC.

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