Intel Making Moves: Acer Arc A770 BiFrost GPU Review, Thermals, & Tear-Down

Acer is one of Intel's first board partners to enter the market, and the Acer BiFrost Predator A770 GPU is a weirdly designed, unique video card. The BiFrost card runs an axial fan and a blower fan next to it, combining what we'd expect of a 'normal' board partner with what we'd expect of... Acer. This is an important move for Intel, as it needs these partners in order to see successful, wide distribution of its Arc Alchemist GPUs and future Battlemage GPUs. The A770 BiFrost went through our lab for game testing, thermals, acoustics, and build quality.



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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - A Weird, Interesting Video Card
02:26 - Bizarre Marketing & Getting the Card
06:14 - Thermal Testing of the Acer A770 Predator
08:37 - Noise Testing & Loud Idle
11:34 - Game Benchmarking (Intel Arc vs. NVIDIA, AMD)
13:24 - Tearing Down the Acer BiFrost
17:16 - Removing the Cooler
20:14 - Fan Assembly
24:01 - Conclusion & Built Well

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Host, Writing, Testing: Steve Burke
Game Testing: Mike Gaglione
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets

[MrTechnofuzz]

As some one who remembers GPU advertisements from the 90s and 00s, Im glad Acer went above and beyond for their advert on newegg, definitely alot more than the competition is doing and its a fun and interesting way to advertise a GPU. Acer did indeed go above and beyond for this one. Thanks Steve.

[YonOtto]

I love the older aesthetic of this card. Looks like something that would have been around in the late 2000s / early 2010's.

[SuperMari]

Wouldn't mind some innovation, so I'm quite interested in these new ways of trying to cool a card. Truly hope Intel won't give up becoming the third competitor in the GPU business, consumers really need it.

[csn]

I am rooting for intel. The market needs a third player. Slowly making steps forward.

[Zosu]

It’s really nice to see some interesting designs. These days every card seems to be designed more or less the same.

[ImEverlove]

This is great news. For Intel, Acer and us the buyers. Hopefully Acer stays with Intel and releases unique cards for every generation to come or simply just release good cards.

[christophermullins]

I feel like Intel is leaning into the novelty of their GPUs. It's great to see Intel making moves. Hopefully next gen will come on time and compete as we desperately need it. Let's go Intel!

[grantm.]

This whole video is an absolutely perfect introduction to the channel. It's quite approachable and understandable for viewers who may be relatively new to the hobbyist PC space, as it has a fairly tight scope (this video mainly just compares the new Acer card vs the original Intel A770 card, so the fact that there are only two cards to keep in mind and their names are relatively simple and memorable means this video is easier to follow and not as overwhelming as some others), freshly introduces the viewer to all your normal testing methodologies and processes (including stuff that I as a regular viewer hadn't been fully aware of), and keeps everything simple and succinct (which I really appreciated- the data analysis section in particular felt a lot less visually and numerically overwhelming than in the other GN reviews I've seen, though I'm guessing that's mainly because, again, there were only two cards being compared here).

[Anvilshock]

Even just beginning with the thermal coupling to the backplate, I like how they worked towards making the Arc a promising piece of graphics hardware competition. At least that's what it seems like. So, good on them.

[SirPoppy]

This would look bloody amazing vertically mounted, it would look unlike anything on the market

[seekerofthetruths]

I know you guys hear it a lot, but I want to say it again; your diligence in clear, concise, and unbiased testing is fantastic. Thank you for what you do.

[WillFuI]

This card is cool glad you are doing a review

[physxme]

Not all DIY cases have good airflow. For ITX cases, it's a real possibility that you don't get any exhaust fan at all. This card can be very helpful in those scenarios.

[terminusaquo]

Nice to see Intel getting support for ARC from well known companies, they need a company like EVGA who has experience in the GPU market to start creating ARC GPUs though. Kingpin A770 GPU maybe 🤔

I'm watching Intel ARC with interest as a third player is needed 😁

[PacketWrangler]

You mentioned that this fan setup might have an impact on a "hot box" OEM build - I'd be interested to see that. If you still have one of the super hot pre-builts, maybe test a reference against the Bifrost for thermals and performance on both the CPU and GPU. I wouldn't expect it to be huge or anything, but it'd be interesting to see if that's a problem that this card can actually address.

[lagom]

Really love the look of this card! Was already contemplating on buying an intel card, both because of needing an upgrade and also to support the (hopefully) new soon to be competitor on the market, this video convinced me to get one :)

[DerLuukee]

Got that GPU last week, looking forward to see it mature!

[tomtomkowski]

I wish Intel's GPU department the best of luck because Nvidia went full bananas with ripping us off and AMD as always just follow.

[Namredel]

lol, Love how you put up the fire extinguisher in the shot. Nice work guys!

[dezpotizmOFheaven]

Since I own an Acer Predator laptop with an RTX 3080 and it's pretty neat, especially because I got it for the price af a Desktop 3080 back in 2021, I really appreciate this cooperation.
Also: That Bionic(le) pun totally got me. That stuff is pure childhood! The best thing Lego ever did! :'D