Intel claims that its new GPU, the GPU, can outperform Nvidia’s RTX 3060 at the same price. This week at its Intel Innovation developer conference, Intel introduced its flagship Arc A770 graphics card, setting a new $329 benchmark for Intel Arc GPUs.
The most powerful Intel Arc GPU to date, this is a big deal. According to an Intel claim(opens in new tab), the Arc A770 is capable of running many games at 1080p with ray tracing enabled faster than Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060. The early reviews have proven this to be true (opens in new tab). Learn all about the Intel Arc A770 right here: when it will be available, how much it will cost, what features it will have, and more.
Intel Arc A770 Release Date And Price
The official launch of Intel’s Arc A770 graphics processing unit is set for October 12. In other words, you’ll have to part with $329. Similar to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, which will be released in late 2020 for $329. Not that you could have gotten one for that price anyway, what with semiconductor shortages and cryptocurrency miners driving up GPU prices until recently. With GPU prices dropping, it’s possible that you’ll be able to buy a brand-new Arc A770 in October at its MSRP.
#IntelArc A770 GPUs are entering the market starting October 12, packed with modern features and technologies to deliver great gaming and ray tracing performance. Are you ready to play? #IntelON pic.twitter.com/sI1nK5Q05d
— Intel Graphics (@IntelGraphics) September 27, 2022
Intel Arc A770 Specs
Two versions of the Intel Arc A770 will be available: Intel’s own A770 Limited Edition GPU and whatever A770 cards Intel’s partners build. This is significant because the GDDR6 VRAM capacity of Intel’s Limited Edition cards is 16GB, but only 8GB will be included in the shipments of the variants made by partners. It’s not clear if the 8GB A770 cards, which are less powerful, will be less expensive than the 16GB Intel-branded card, but we certainly hope so.
Intel Arc A770 Outlook
Intel is directly challenging Nvidia’s popular last-gen cards by pricing their new $329 GPU against the $329 GeForce RTX 3060, promising gamers better performance for the same price with the Intel A-series GPUs compared to the GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs. Even though Nvidia is currently promoting its 40-series cards, I still think it’s a good business move, even though it may seem behind the times.
To say that you didn’t gasp at the price of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 graphics cards when they were announced earlier this month would be an understatement. Even though Nvidia’s asking price of $1,599 for a 4090 is excruciating, it was the company’s upsell on the RTX 4080 12GB that led my colleague Tony Polanco to decide against purchasing a card from that series.
See, Nvidia offers two versions of the 4080 ($899 for a 4080 12GB and $1,199 for a 4080 16GB), and it appears that the weaker version isn’t just lacking in RAM; rather, it’s a less potent card that’s more in line with what we’d expect from a 4070 or 4070 Ti.
When you factor in that Nvidia is upselling an underpowered card as a 4080, it starts to feel like the company is taking advantage of customers. The RTX 3070 and 3070 Ti launched in 2020 for significantly less than $899 ($499 for the 3070 and $599 for the 3070 Ti).
In an interview with Digital Trends and PC World, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended the company’s high prices for these cards by claiming that Moore’s Law is dead: “the idea that the chip is going to go down in price is a story from the past.” Marketwatch reports that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger disagrees, saying that “Moore’s Law is alive and well” during the company’s annual Intel Innovation keynote.
Who, then is correct? In the future, these titans of the GPU industry may or may not be able to perform miracles with silicon, but we will have to wait and see. By lining up a series of (relatively) affordable desktop GPUs at the same time that prices for GeForce 30-series cards are beginning to fall, Intel appears to have taken advantage of a chink in Nvidia’s market strategy.
Of course, we are still anticipating the release of AMD‘s third-generation RDNA GPUs sometime in 2022. We will let you know how these new Radeon GPUs compare to the competition if and when Big Red finally unveils them in November, as has been rumored.