Intel has listed its upcoming Arc Pro A40 graphics cards for professional applications in the South Korean National Radio Research Agency (RRA) database. This is an essential part of the process that precedes product availability, so Intel look to be prepping to release this board in the coming months or even weeks. Right now all we have is this listing, so add a pinch of salt until we get more information. The Arc Pro A40 seems to be an entry-level solution aimed at systems with light workload.
This is not the first time Intel (or one of its partners) has listed a workstation-grade discrete GPU. Dell listed its Precision 5470 mobile workstation with Intel's Arc Alchemist A370M Pro (based on the ACM-G11 GPU with 128 EUs) back in April, so Intel looks to be entering the professional visualization (ProViz) GPU market soon. Intel renamed the Arc Alchemist A370M Pro to the Arc Pro A40M in April, according to to VideoCardz.
The Dell Precision 5470 included the Arc A370M Pro/Arc Pro A40M alongside Nvidia's RTX A1000 4GB GDDR6 graphics processor, which is one of Nvidia's most basic professional-grade GPUs.
Assuming Intel follows the same nomenclature for mobile and desktop GPUs, we can reasonably assume the Arc Pro A40 graphics card is based on the ACM-G11 GPU with up to 128 EUs (equivalent to up to 1,024 stream processors) and is positioned against entry-level professional GPUs from AMD and Nvidia.
Speaking of entry-level workstation graphics boards for desktops, we should note that Nvidia only offers Turing-based T600 ($242) and T1000 ($362) graphics boards for this market. While the market of low-end ProViz graphics cards isn't large, it definitely exists and there are customers who demand to have ISV (independent software vendor) certifications for applications such as AutoCAD and Photoshop.
GPUs such as this are typically pre-installed in machines from vendors such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo. It's not particularly surprising that Intel decided to start rolling out its professional Arc Alchemist lineup with entry-level boards rather than top-of-the-range offerings that will inevitably face stronger competition from Nvidia.
What remains to be seen, of course, is how Intel's Arc Pro A40 performs and how the company plans to position its product. But from the looks of it (or, rather, from the lack of higher-performing SKUs in the RRA database), Intel is going after volume, here, and will be selling primarily to OEMs.
