ASRock's First Low-Profile GPU Is An Intel Arc A380 For Compact Budget Gaming PCs
ASRock has added a new Intel Arc A380 graphics card to its stables. This might have passed without comment, and ASRock hasn’t published a press release for this product, but this is notable for being the firm’s first ever low-profile (LP) graphics card design.
The Arc A380 is very much the junior member of the Arc Alchemist family, and its low power design makes it a good candidate for small form factor friendly designs like these LP cards, or mini-ITX style single fan products. Further enhancing this product’s cramped case compatibility is that it doesn’t need a power connector. This saves cabling issues and airflow obstructions, and the ASRock Arc A380 LP 6G is a cinch to slot into systems which might lack a PSU with spare power connector. Though some Arc A380s, some featuring factory overclocks, were released in designs with a power connector, ASRock has wisely avoided one here, taking the necessary power from the PCIe slot (slots are rated for up to 75W).
From the images sprinkled about this article, it is clear to see that ASRock’s A380 LP design isn’t particularly innovative, and we have seen a similar proportioned MSI model. The design uses twin fans with 0dB technology, and while it is quite low profile (of course) at 69mm in height, its 169mm length isn’t so modest. Moreover, its single slot bracket doesn’t hide that this card is two slots thick (39mm).
Sometimes LP designs include interchangeable brackets allowing them to be used in full width slots, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with the ASRock Arc A380 LP 6G. Another drawback is the cutting of the expected number of outputs from an A380 from four to two: a single HDMI 2.0b and DP 2.0 port are available to owners of this card.
As for the hardware under the cooling shroud, what we have here is a reference spec model. This means it has 1024 shading processors running at up to 2.0GHz, accompanied by 6GB of 15.5Gbps GDDR6 memory using a 96-bit interface and delivering 186GB/s bandwidth.
