INTEL

Arc A770 graphics accelerator suffers complete dismantling by Gamers Nexus

Next week, the graphics card market will take off and October 12th marks the start of sales of Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4090, but also Intel's Arc A770 and A750. Acer appears to be one of the partner manufacturers for Intel's venture, but other than that it's the company's own models that have been seen. Nexus Gamers takes a closer look at how Intel's first graphics cards are built and relives traumatic memories of the Geforce RTX 2000 era.

Intel emphasizes that the Arc A770 board has no visible screws. Snap fasteners, friction, glue or tape are proven means of screwless fastening, but the downside is that disassembly is difficult without causing damage. Of course, this also applies to repairs, installing water blocks or thorough cleaning. The cover plate on the back of the Arc A770 uses double-sided tape, but the Gamers Nexus manages to rip off the very thin piece of metal without damaging it.

Once under the cover plate, the Gamers Nexus points out a cardinal fault, which is an air gap between the back of the graphics card and the cover plate, preventing heat dissipation. Intel's screwless strategy also ends here with notice. In total, the number of screws is 55 or 56, with a mix of different lengths, which makes it even more difficult to keep track. The mix of many screws and more or less permanent fixing methods is what makes Nexus Gamers think of the Geforce RTX 2000 Super series in reference design.

It's not just the screws that are too many, it's also the number of custom circuit boards. The Intel Arc A770 has lighting partially around the fans, partially around the edge of the board. For this, the company designed large and delicate solutions of circular and rectangular circuits for LED lighting. Some smaller circuit boards for more lighting come with the first one. The wiring between circuit boards is held in place with more tape.

Finally, when it comes to the cooling solution and circuit board for the graphics, memory and power supply, there are more conventional variants, with the former combining aluminum heat pipes, vapor chamber and heat sinks. As was previously known, the Arc A770 has a relatively large circuit area of ​​406 mm², significantly greater than the equivalent performance of the Geforce RTX 3060 of 276 mm². The big circuit made by TSMC and the complicated cooler suggest that Intel won't make very good margins with the $329 price tag.

Gamers Nexus