The launch of Intel’s ARC GPU is just over the horizon, despite how quiet that launch is rumoured to be, with several of its board partners expected to launch their own custom variant of the components. Well, all but one manufacturer.
According to Igor Wallossek, founder and owner of the German tech portal, Igor’sLAB, one “big board partner” has decided to opt out of producing the chipmaker’s ARC GPUs, saying that there were concerns about the “quality” of the GPUs. Now, Igor’s not giving any names or indication as to who the brand is, but it is safe to assume that the board partner could actually be a born and bred Chinese brand, given that the card is going to see the launch and distribution within China first, before the rest of the world are able to get their hands on said GPUs.
That being said, we also need to understand the OEM’s decision to do what it did with Intel’s ARC, at least from their perspective. As it stands and as the chipmaker’s representative had said, it intends to release its cards at such aggressive price points that it steals the consideration of gamers away from the likes of NVIDIA and AMD.
The problem here is that, because of this strategy, Intel isn’t actually able to give a price guarantee on ARC, so if the GPU doesn’t sell as well as it hopes, it’s the board partners that will eventually have to bear the brunt of the sales and lack thereof. That, in turn, is also why there still hasn’t been any leaks or inkling as to just how much Intel intends to price the card.
We can also couple that financial headache with the performance of the ARC GPUs; to date, the drivers for the cards are still less than optimal, despite the weekly videos of the A770 and A750’s prowess that Intel has been posting on the dedicated portal.
(Source: Igor’sLAB, Videocardz)
