Intel Arc A770 Graphics Card Lands on Oct. 12 With a Surprisingly Low Price Tag

Intel plans on launching its high-end Arc PC graphics card, the Arc A770, on Oct. 12 starting at the surprisingly low price of $329. 

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the news on Tuesday and said the move is intended to counter the high costs consumers have seen for GPUs over the past two years. Nvidia recently said its RTX 4000 series will start at $899 with the RTX 4080 12GB.  

“For a long time, we’ve been seeing the average price of GPUs is right in this $200 to $300 range. But what’s happened in the last few years? They’ve just gotten super expensive, and we don’t think they need to,” Gelsinger said during the Intel Innovation event in San Jose. 

(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)

According to Gelsinger, Intel heard complaints from gamers about the high prices. “You should be frustrated because you are losing out as a gaming community. And today, we’re fixing that.”

The $329 price for the Arc A770 price is significantly lower than Nvidia’s RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, which starts at $399, but can be sold through retailers for $449 to $499 or more. Benchmarks from Intel also suggest the Arc A770 will try compete against the RTX 3060 Ti. 

The company may have also priced the A770 at $329 to attract consumers who are on the fence about Intel’s Arc GPUs, which will struggle to offer optimal performance on older PC games. At the same time, GPU demand has declined amid an economic downturn and Ethereum phasing out crypto-mining, which has led retailers to initiate price cuts. 

It’s also important to note that Intel’s Arc GPUs will be arriving late. The company originally planned on formally launching them in the US in Q3, following an earlier delay. However, the Oct. 12 launch date shows the Arc A770 will actually land in Q4. 

Intel’s graphics head Raja Koduri told PCMag the other models in the Arc GPU line will also be launching on Oct. 12th. Pricing information will be available in the coming weeks.