MSI’s First Intel Graphics Card Is a Low-Profile Arc A380

MSI Arc A380 LP
(Image credit: MSI / JD)

An MSI branded Intel Arc A380 graphics card has emerged online. It is the first example from one of the big three AIBs. Thus it is a significant find, even though the card is not available as a separate retail product, only as a component in pre-built MSI systems.

MSI’s first Intel graphics card in the shape of the Arc A380 graphics card is a low profile, or LP, model. It seems an appropriate choice for its 75W design. We looked at previous MSI LP designs with Nvidia and AMD GPUs, and while many also use two small fans, the cooling shroud design is new for Intel Arc. It is pleasantly sculpted but minimal, and we wonder if Intel had a hand in the design.

MSI is the first AIB to ship an Arc A380 with reference GPU and memory clocks. It probably helped it stick to the 75W TDP and may mean that it is entirely bus powered (it won’t need an extra power connector from your PSU). If this is so, but MSI’s specs don’t confirm it, then it could be a good choice for those upgrading PCs without any spare power connectors available. Previous A380 designs from Gunnir and ASRock need a supplementary 8-pin power connector.

(Image credit: MSI / JD)

We expect the MSI Arc A380 LP to perform slower than the OC examples from rivals. For instance, its GPU operates 20% slower than the Gunnir and 10% slower than the ASRock models we have seen.

The MSI desktop systems are packing Arc A380 GPUs, unearthed by VideoCardz, and retail at Chinese electronics retailer JD.com. The most powerful and modern option available uses an Intel Core i5-12400F CPU, with the aforementioned Arc A380, and poses as a machine for eSports titles or internet café-style gaming. However, there are other CPU choices, such as the Core i3-10105F or i5-10400F for those with smaller budgets or more modest needs. All the systems feature MSI Bomber motherboards (H510M or H610M, depending on processor generation). Pricing of these systems ranges from the local equivalent of $530 to $650.

There have also been recent rumors that at least one major AIB has halted production of Arc graphics cards due to ‘quality’ issues.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • -Fran-
    It looks cute!

    Come on, Intel. Don't screw this up! This card would be put to good use by people that wants AV1 HW encoding! xD

    Regards.
    Reply
  • King_V
    Unfortunately, I think we're at the "Intel, you need to fix the screwups" stage of things with these cards... well, the software, at least.

    And, Intel needs to price it even more aggressively then I might've thought before. They've got some damage control to do.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    King_V said:
    Unfortunately, I think we're at the "Intel, you need to fix the screwups" stage of things with these cards... well, the software, at least.

    And, Intel needs to price it even more aggressively then I might've thought before. They've got some damage control to do.
    I agree on both counts, TBH... I think they're past preventing scrwups for sure, so let me rephrase as: "come on, Intel! don't kick the ball further after dropping it and instead pick it up!". Better? xD

    Also, I'm liking AV1 the more I test the software based one in OBS. I wish they would expose more options for tuning though.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    I've got a couple older LP boxes that could use a GPU upgrade. RX 6400... Preforms crap on PCIe 3.0 bus. ARC GPUs... Need a system that supports resizable bar or they run like crap. Um.. okay. I guess these systems aren't getting any upgrades.
    Reply
  • Etrius vanRandr
    I am SUPER stoked for this!!!!! I've got an older Optiplex I modded into a server that would hugely benefit from one of these things.

    Stardude82 said:
    RX 6400... Preforms crap on PCIe 3.0 bus.

    Uh??? Are you sure about that? It barely loses any performance on 3.0 vs 4.0.

    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/sapphire-radeon-rx6400-lp-vs-msi-gtx-1050-ti-oc-lp-rx6400-better-in-everything-except-directx-9.3772300/
    Stardude82 said:
    Need a system that supports resizable bar or they run like crap.

    Your systems are the issue, not the card.
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    Etrius vanRandr said:
    I am SUPER stoked for this!!!!! I've got an older Optiplex I modded into a server that would hugely benefit from one of these things.



    Uh??? Are you sure about that? It barely loses any performance on 3.0 vs 4.0.

    https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/sapphire-radeon-rx6400-lp-vs-msi-gtx-1050-ti-oc-lp-rx6400-better-in-everything-except-directx-9.3772300/


    Your systems are the issue, not the card.
    One synthetic benchmark vs one real one for the RX 6400 with 30% loss.
    https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6400-pci-express-30-scaling/3.html
    Overall, it's not that bad, but I'm better off looking for an unicorn reasonably low profile GTX1650 or replacing them with consoles for $200.

    My systems may suck, but I'm not the one selling low end video cards which cut out a substantial piece of the market.
    Reply
  • Etrius vanRandr
    Stardude82 said:
    One synthetic benchmark vs one real one for the RX 6400 with 30% loss.
    https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-6400-pci-express-30-scaling/3.html

    I tried it on a Ryzen system (R5 3600X, 4x4GB DDR4 4000) playing games where it's clearly bottlenecked and there was only a 5 to 10 percent difference between PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 across Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Destiny 2, Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: TNC, GTA 5, RDR2 Online, and Sea of Thieves.

    Keep in mind that I checked DX9, DX11, DX12, OpenGL, and Vuklan. It loses the most performance on DX9 and OpenGL.

    So I'm not sure what's different between my card and TPU's in their tests.
    Reply