Well its 7:41 am here and I hate being awake. Why am I awake you ask? Because I wanted an Intel A770. They put one listing on NewEgg and it’s sold out. A750 is still around for those that want it. I don’t. And I’m mad about it. It’s seems very unlikely given the rumors that it will be restocked and no more will be produced. This sucks. Guess I’ll just buy an A310 then and call it a day since that’s the cheapest way I’ll get AV1 Encode/Decode.
UPDATE: @DannyT and @Jieren_Zheng So I’ve periodically checked NewEgg and they are now taking backorders. Supposedly they will ship out in a week. I’m not sure either of you can get one. If you want one @DannyT and you are willing to pay for postage from USA, I might be able to grab one for you if you are can’t get one in Canada.
Anybody here score one?
UPDATE 2: I did actually get a backorder in for the A770 LE and it looks like it ships out today. I’m not quite sure how I’ll go about testing it since support isn’t available in Linux until kernel 6 releases
@Jieren_Zheng The only 16GB model is the Limited Edition one from Intel and to rub more salt in the wound, the limited edition card has higher clocked memory along with more of it. According to Intel’s blog post that I just found, they will only be listing them on NewEgg and selling at select MicroCenter stores. What the hell is this. You call this a graphics card launch Intel??? One online retailer and a physical retailer that few people have access to??? And not even all MicroCenter locations at that.
@Jieren_Zheng I’m resorting to asking an Aussie friend of mine to pick one up for me. I’ll just eat the cost of postage and the markup to get it. Don’t ask me why I’m so married to Intel, it makes zero sense.
Edit: No I’m not, I take it back. Importing from AUS would cost me probably over $500 and that’s just silly for a card with an MSRP of $350. Intel, you guys have really goofed.
I just did that actually. It costs 20% more if it comes from Australia.
Not sure if I might regret considering I already have the A380. I actually want to see how Intel’s open source Mesa drivers mature considering DX11 and below uses DXVK which should theoretically work. That being said, the newer Iris Xe iGPU is struggling with some issues but looking at the old iGPUs, works really well with more features than the Windows drivers.
I am still trying to get the Acer Bifrost card from Taiwan and hoping to cancel both preorders instead.
The Intel LE card uses double sided tape and makes it frustrating to repaste thermal pads/paste or replace fans, with proprietary fan headers (I remember Dell/HP has something like this on their motherboards) unlike the Acer one.
I agree with @GhostLegion, I thought I would be the Guinea Pig for us framework gamers. My plan was to pull the 3060 out of my eGPU (which has given me 0 issues BTW) and slot in an A770 16GB (if I could get one) and then report the issues etc. that I experienced… I thought I could do a service!
At my lunch today I sat there on my framework trying to source, back order, pre-order… ANYTHING… but it’s not just bad availability… in Canada it’s NOT AVAILABLE AT ALL… only 1 Canadian site actually confirmed the part number but with a SOLD OUT sign.
Since the 16GB is a “Limited Edition” (whatever that means)… I am starting to think I will never be able to source one… and the 8GB version would be a memory downgrade from my current 12GB card so I don’t see the point.
I got my hopes up after watching the LTT live stream where they played games on it side by side with the card I already have… I counted down the days like Christmas and then bam… they pull a Nintendo distribution lol.
Intel already had it rough with the delays and certain cancelations etc… if this is how they are going to continue the launch then they are just going to fail and the hope of a third contender will be lost. Very Sad… No B in the RGB!
UPDATE: @GhostLegion, I tried to backorder from newegg already and it wouldn’t let me change it to Canada… and the Canadian Newegg doesn’t sell anything but an out of stock ASROCK A380… thanks anyways.
From MLID, most of the inventory will be sold to OEMs or bundled for other products as the margins for DIY is very low. So perhaps if we all can’t get it, eBay and the second hand markets are the only option (will be looking out for the Acer one, seems to be only found in Taiwan).
He also said that it was “effectively cancelled”. If I believed that I wouldn’t even be in the market to purchase one. I’m choosing to believe that since Nvidia has made the grievous error of abandoning the low-end to clear out old stock & AMD is likely to do the same for the time being, Intel might break even on Alchemist. I also choose to believe that Intel won’t be so foolish as to abandon the GPU market after just one real generation (DG1 doesn’t count). Intel needs to compete in server against Nvidia and GPU’s are how they’ll do it. Hopefully.
I was thinking instead, Intel would cease for a few generations and maybe work on laptop chips as the low end for Nvidia on laptops are not often cared about, even by AMD. They are good at more professional workloads so the Data centre side would be ongoing too.
While fixing their drivers etc and waiting for the oversupply situation to end before going back to selling desktop cards.
I am actually talking to a TW computer seller for the Acer model right now to see if I can bring it in.
So, after almost a month after its release they are finally available at the local Memory Express’ here in Canada (the 16GB A770 LE). I am going to grab one on my lunch and maybe start testing on my framework / egpu this weekend to see how it compares to my 12GB 3060.
Well my 3060 is still sold at stores today and it still costs more than I just paid for the A770 which “Spec Wise” is more powerful? But I will have to do a lot of testing this weekend to really know if it’s worth it… going to do some video conversion / upscaling tests and lots of game tests (new and old just to see how bad older games run) and give an opinion if it’s worth it or not.
@Second_Coming, that looks like a good deal! … I paid $479.95 CAD (about $355.95 USD) for the A770 16GB LE plus an additional $47.99 for an over the counter IPR 2 year warranty at my local Memory Express
I received my Intel A770 LE and an Acer A770 (both 16GB) models, I have yet to test them as the test system I am putting them in doesn’t have the required power supply to get the A770s running. Currently running the A380 inside but I have issues with the ReBar on the system (partly because it is a BIOS mod to enable functionality).
I tried enabling ReBar in my Intel Z97-Pro motherboard only to realise that ASUS didn’t allow mapping of the GPU to 64-bit memory to maintain the CSM module so it is mapped to 32-bits =\
Now I am contemplating getting another Haswell mainboard (maybe a H97 chipset one) and hope it works or I could get a new AMD mainboard (I have a spare Ryzen 3600 CPU) B450 or B550 or maybe even an MSI A320M-A Pro (seems like MSI enabled ReBar on all their AMD motherboards from 300 series upwards) that definitely works, but that means that I have to buy new DDR4 RAM =\ That’s kinda pricey for a test system to test =\
So it looks like FW laptop does not currently support ReBAR unless there is some setting in OS that I haven’t set. My understanding is that it is purely a BIOS thing so… @Kieran_Levin what are the chances of getting ReBAR enabled on the next BIOS update?
