(Image Credit: Intel)
Intel has set its sights on the workstation market, unveiling two brand-new Arc Alchemist graphics cards, the Arc Pro A60 desktop card and the Arc Pro A60M mobile GPU. These GPUs are currently the peak of workstation solutions that Intel offers, both in terms of memory and GPU cores. They outdo the previously released Arc Pro A40 and A50 GPUs in these aspects, thus offering an exciting upgrade for professionals in the field.
Specs for the New GPUs
The Arc Pro A60 desktop card has 16 Xe Cores, 256 EUs, 16 RT units, and 256 matrix engines. It comes with 12GB of GDDR6 memory operating on a 192-bit bus, which is an interesting departure from previous models. Until now, only the mobile A730M offered 12GB of memory, but with the Arc Pro A60, a desktop variant now matches this capacity.
On the other hand, the mobile A60M has similar specs but offers 8GB of memory operating on a 128-bit bus—power consumption for these GPUs peaks at 130W TBP for the A60 and 95W for the Pro A60M.
PCIe Lane Upgrade and the ACM-G12 Chip
One significant upgrade these GPUs bring is in their PCIe lanes. They offer 16 PCIe lanes, an improvement from the 8 PCIe lanes found in previous Pro GPUs. This also applies to the mobile variant, making it one of the rare mobile GPUs to support 16-lane configurations. This boost is due to the use of the more potent ACM-G10 chip used in the Arc A770 and Arc A750, as opposed to the smaller ACM-G11 chip found in the Arc A380 in previous Pro solutions. The new Pro A60 apparently uses the ACM-G12, an intermediary chip.
A Compact Solution with a Single-Slot Cooling System
Possibly the best feature of the Arc Pro A60 is its compact single-slot cooling solution. This makes system compatibility a breeze for the Pro A60, as it can fit in almost any chassis that doesn't require half-height form factors. Based on estimates from the released images, the card's dimensions should be around 242 x 111 x 20 mm. The card sports a textured matte black finish with glossy characters spelling out the model name. It also features a stack of display outputs, with four DisplayPort 2.1 HBM10 (40 Gbps) connectors.
Performance and Value Proposition
Despite these upgrades in PCIe lanes and VRAM, these GPUs will be slower. Intel's Arc A770 still delivers double the computing power, with 32 Xe Cores at its disposal. However, the A60 series should be a competitive offering for users in the lower-tier workstation market. The A60 offers plenty of PCIe bandwidth and VRAM capacity, especially for the desktop card. This could make the A60 even more enticing, considering that most cards in this class generally offer only four to eight PCIe lanes at best, with 4 to 8GB of memory and nearly half the VRAM bus width of the A60. Intel's Arc Pro GPUs also have workstation-optimized drivers specifically designed for leading workstation applications like Autodesk.
Price and Availability
Intel did not disclose the pricing for the A60 GPUs, but they will be available from Intel-authorized distributors in the coming weeks. The mobile variant will be available in mobile systems in the next several months. A rumor suggests it could cost $175, which would be a fantastic value if the other features are up to snuff, especially considering that Nvidia's previous generation RTX A2000 12GB costs $637.
Conclusion
All in all, the new Arc Pro A60 series represents a substantial step forward for Intel in the professional GPU market. While not the most powerful option available, these GPUs make a compelling case for users in the lower-tier workstation market who require high memory and PCIe lane capacity. As always, the real test will come once these GPUs hit the market and are put through their paces by professionals. But until then, the Arc Pro A60 series certainly seems like a promising addition to Intel's lineup.
