Intel's Arc GPUs technically released over a week ago, albeit in mobile versions. The desktop versions of these cards are still nowhere in sight for now, but a recent interview featuring Team Blue graphics guy Tom Petersen gave a closer look at one-and it's got an interesting power configuration.
PCGamer reports that Petersen, in a video interview by HotHardware on YouTube, showed off what looks to be Intel's own version of NVIDIA/AMD's reference design desktop graphics card. Close to the tail-end of the video, he brings one closer to the camera and shows that it has three eight-pin power connectors.
Here's the video from HotHardware's YouTube channel. Be sure to check near the end for Petersen's tease:
It is not clear whether the card is an engineering sample or an actual retail version to hit stores later this year. But what is rock solid is that the card has all those power connectors, which could point to a sky-high power draw potentially comparable to NVIDIA's new RTX 3090 Ti.
The 3090 Ti, if you don't know, is NVIDIA's most power-hungry card yet (given that it is their current top-of-the-line offering). As per this review by KitGuruTech, the card can push total system power draw to as much as 715W, which puts it way above that of the base 3090:
If the Intel Arc graphics card teased in the HotHardwareVideo is accurate in terms of power draw, then you'll need a very beefy PSU to run it: a minimum of 1000W on the safest side. The projected TDP for the card alone could be as much as 525W.
There's still no official release date for desktop versions of Intel's Arc graphics cards yet. So far, the only thing known is that they're going to release the Limited Edition series (i.e. their own version of NVIDIA's Founder's Edition or AMD's Reference designs) by Summer 2022, reports The Verge.
More Power, More Heat
Here's something you'll need to know about the upcoming Intel Arc desktop GPUs: if they do consume so much power, they're also going to run quite hot.
As a result, Team Blue would be smart enough to ensure that the GPU die will receive adequate cooling especially on their Limited Edition cards. This could lead to a cooling solution as beefy as the recent ones implemented on NVIDIA's RTX 3000 series and AMD's RX 6000 series.
A thicker cooler would mean that the card will require more PCIe slots on your computer. Think something like 3 slots, or around 2.5 slots minimum. This means that anyone looking to add an Arc GPU to a mini-itx or any other small-form factor build, they won't be able to do so. Or maybe they could, but they'll be dealing with way too much heat.
You'd best prepare your wallet for the next few months.
Related Article: Intel ARC News: ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte Will Launch The First Custom Models
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Written by RJ Pierce
