GUNNIR’s Intel Arc A380 INDEX Graphics Card Tones Down The Power Requirement But Delivers The Same Performance
Chinese AIB, GUNNIR, was the first to introduce the first Intel Arc A380 custom design. Their Arc A380 Photon was the first custom graphics card based on the DG2 Alchemist GPU & it looks like they are unveiling a new graphics card today which will be part of the “INDEX” family, a line that only featured the older Iris Xe Max Index V2 graphics card. The GUNNIR Intel Arc A380 INDEX will retain the same specifications as the standard model with a total of 8 Xe cores or 1024 ALUs, a clock speed of 2000 MHz, a 6 GB GDDR6 memory running across a 96-bit bus interface at 15.5 Gbps speeds, & a quad display output array featuring 3 DisplayPorts and a single HDMI port. The main difference between the GUNNIR Photon and the GUNNIR Index is that the latter comes with no power connectors since it has a TBP of 75W. As such, the PCIe slot will feed the GPU with the entirety of its power requirements. The GUNNIR Intel Arc A380 Photon does feature a much higher clock speed of 2450 MHz (+450 MHz) but comes with a 92W TBP that requires an external power connector to boot. But even with a 2000 MHz clock speed, the difference in performance will most likely be minimal (within 5%). The GUNNIR Intel Arc A380 INDEX is currently listed on JD.com for a price of 1199 RMB which is 100 RMB lower than the Photon model. That converts to $170 US which is higher than its US MSRP of around $130-$140 US. In terms of design, the card also drops the more premium aesthetics including the RGB lighting that the Photon carries. It does retain a dual-fan cooling solution in a dual-slot form factor & still looks great for its price. The PCB makes use of a 2+1 phase design and the card should fit in nicely inside SFF PC builds.
