Acer Announces Entry Into Discrete GPU Market with Intel Arc A770


PC hardware specialist Acer today on Twitter announced its official entry into the discrete GPU market with its own-brand Intel Arc GPUs. The company will be pulling its gaming-oriented Predator branding for the launch of its very own Intel Arc A770, the Predator BiFrost. Despite going in with the newest discrete GPU manufacturer, Acer’s attempt at taking on the thin-margin discrete GPU field marks an interesting entry – at least from a design standpoint. The new Arc A770 BiFrost features an asymmetrical dual-fan setup peppered with RGB lighting and industrial detailing throughout in what seems to be a semi-blower-type design. The card’s design is somewhat reminiscent of NVIDIA’s take on its Founder Editions, with a number of visible screws that help break up the visual continuity. It also sports a dual 8-pin power delivery circuit – beefier than Intel’s own take on the Arc A770, which we’ve just unboxed.

Best-known for its pre-constructed desktops, laptops, and monitors, Acer is now seemingly looking to dip its toes into the discrete GPU market. Unfortunately, Acer’s announcement is bereft of details; there’s only a render of the card and no actual specifications on whether the company will be offering the 8 GB version Arc A770, its 16 GB cousin, or both. It’s also unknown whether the company is planning on extending its reach towards other Arc models or even other manufacturers such as AMD and NVIDIA, but it does make sense that it’s forging ahead with a single manufacturer first.

GPUs are some of the more complex electronics assemblies available on personal computers, and the company is sure to test its waters first instead of fully diving into the manufacturing space. We’d still expect the company to take the ASUS/Gigabyte road of offering cards from various manufacturers instead of just one – its Predator branding could certainly support that effort. It seems that some companies are stepping up to fill the GPU space further, even as others – like GPU-darling EVGA – throw their proverbial towels.