We have yet to see the Intel Arc A580 desktop graphics card (24 Xe cores), but something that looks like it could be an Arc A550 desktop graphics card (16 Xe cores) has passed through CompuBench (H/T @KOMACHI_ENSAKA). When (if?) Intel gets around to releasing the Arc A580, it may make sense to release a junior model such as the Arc A550 so as not to leave too large a gap down to the Arc A380, which only has eight Xe cores.
Make room for the Arc A550 (Image credit: Intel)
Intel has an existing Arc A550M graphics card for laptops, which also has 16 Xe cores. However, this mobile graphics card has much slower GPU core clocks than the mystery GPU in CompuBench.
The mobile Arc A550M part runs at up to 900 MHz and has a TGP of 60W. It's accompanied by 8GB of 14GBps GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus for 224GBps of bandwidth. Compare these GPU clocks with the alleged desktop Arc A550, which also has 16 Xe cores (for 256 CUs). In the benchmark run, the desktop Arc A550's GPU clocks appear to be much higher, at around 2,400–2,450 MHz.
Unfortunately, CompuBench's data doesn't give us any key specs beyond benchmarking.
CompuBench isn't the most common benchmarking tool — and it's not the one we would've chosen to compare GPUs, so some reference points within the existing Intel Arc range might help. The following table shows the alleged Arc A550 compared to other cards in the Arc lineup, using CompuBench Vertex Connection and Merging performance data where available.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
GPU
Xe Cores
VRAM
CompuBench test (mPixels/s)
Arc A770
32
8GB / 16GB
22.7
Arc A750
28
8GB
21.6
Arc A580
24
8GB
—
Arc A550?
16
8GB
14.9
Arc A380
8
6GB
7.9
Take this all with a grain of salt — we can't verify that this is definitely an Intel Arc A550 (it could be faked or misreported data). And, even if it is, we can't say when it will come to market (if ever). But we hope this CompuBench result is from someone at Intel internally testing a new product that will be launched alongside the Arc A580 — whenever that happens. We saw some AOTS benchmark data from what appeared to be an Arc A580 in Sept., but otherwise it's been relatively quiet.
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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.
A GPU using dies with 75% of the compute units disabled doesn't sound particularly sustainable. If Intel is going to "refresh" Alchemist, what it really needs is a less wasteful in-between die for the A550/580.
With a dedicated 16 Xe die, the hypothetical A550 would be what the A380 really should have been and a worthy contender around the $180 mark instead of $130.
Not too many games I can't at least run with an A380, a bit hit or miss on older titles. But anything with a modern API and low requirements, it does an okay job with.
$250 for an A580 and $200 for an A550 would fit alright.
$140 for an A380
$290 for an A750
$325 for an A770 (Triple fan, neat)
A GPU using dies with 75% of the compute units disabled doesn't sound particularly sustainable. If Intel is going to "refresh" Alchemist, what it really needs is a less wasteful in-between die for the A550/580.
With a dedicated 16 Xe die, the hypothetical A550 would be what the A380 really should have been and a worthy contender around the $180 mark instead of $130.
ACM-G10 has 32 Xe-Cores maximum, so this is "only" half disabled. There's also a pretty big gap between A380 and A580 still, which this could potentially fill.
