Advantech has released the EAI-3100, converting Intel's Arc A370M mobile graphics card into one for the desktop. Although the EAI-3100 can't hang with the best graphics cards, the Arc-powered graphics card represents another option for gamers on a very tight budget. X (formerly Twitter) user momomo_us pointed it out first.
The EAI-3100 has a dual-slot design that measures just 6.61 inches (168 mm) long. It should fit into any half-decent PC case, both old and new. It has an aluminum heatsink that's as big as the whole PCB and depends on a small fan for active cooling. It's the cooling setup you'd find on an entry-level desktop graphics card.
Like the Arc A370M, the EAI-3100 sticks to a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. Advantech didn't make any changes to the specifications. Given the more robust cooling solution, it's perplexing why Advantech doesn't offer a slight factory overclock on the graphics card. As a result, the EAI-3100 continues to operate with a 1,550 MHz graphics clock, capable of delivering up to 4.198 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.
While the Arc A370M has a TGP (total graphics power) ranging from 35W to 50W, the EAI-3100 has a maximum power consumption of 60W. A single PCIe x16 expansion slot, which delivers up to 75W, can provide enough power for the EAI-3100. So it is sort of mind-boggling that the manufacturer is implementing an 8-pin PCIe power connector on the EAI-3100. Perhaps Advantech wanted to leave consumers some headroom for overclocking, but even an 8-pin PCIe power connector is a bit much for an Arc A370M.
The EAI-3100 has two DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and two HDMI 2.0b ports. The configuration enables you to use up to four displays simultaneously. You can enjoy resolutions up to 7680x4320 at 60 Hz with DisplayPort 1.4a or 4096x2160 at 60 Hz with HDMI 2.0b.
The Arc A370M is a decent graphics card for gaming at 1920x1080 if you keep the image fidelity at reasonable settings. The graphics card delivers a gaming performance that surpasses the mobile Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. Intel continuously improves the Arc driver, sometimes up to triple-digit enhancements, so the Arc A370M's performance should progress with time.
However, there are other uses for Intel's Arc Alchemist products, such as video encoding and AI workloads. The Arc A370M offers AV1 and VP9 hardware accelerated video coding and a ticket into Intel's OpenVINO world for AI. And if you own an Intel chip, you can leverage Intel Deep Link technology to impress performance.
The EAI-3100 isn't available at your typical computer hardware retailers. Pricing hasn't been announced, but you can get a quote directly from Advantech.
