Intel Arc B60 dual-GPU variants in development at Sparkle, revealed: Passive, liquid-cooled, and blower models announced.
Intel Arc B60's Dual-GPU Variants On the Horizon
Sparkle, a key player in the tech industry, has officially confirmed its plans to develop dual-GPU versions of the Intel Arc B66 gaming beasts. This exciting news was revealed at this year's Computex extravaganza, where the firm proudly displayed three badass cooling solutions. After a successful demo of the blower, passive, and liquid-cooled solutions, spokespersons from Tom's Hardware reported that dual-GPU versions are indeed being worked on!
Interestingly, Sparkle's Arc Pro B66 cards feature Intel's BMG-G21 Graphics Processing Unit, boasting a whopping 2560 stream processors (20 Xe cores, 160 ray tracing cores, and 160 XMX cores), coupled with a mighty 24GB of GDDR6 memory using a 192-bit interface. These cards are built for a wide assortment of tasks, including AI inference, computer-aided design, professional graphics, and media encoding/decoding.
To accommodate various deployments, these cards are equipped with different cooling systems, including a blower cooler perfect for both desktop workstations and rack servers, a passive cooler for servers, and a liquid cooler. However, only the Arc Pro B66 cards with a blower and passive cooler were exhibited, while the liquid-cooled board (Prototye B) was only referenced. The final look of the liquid-cooled Arc Pro B66 for data centers remains a mystery. Some enthusiasts speculate whether the Arc Pro B66 and its 200W total board power truly necessitate liquid cooling, considering that a blower with an oversized radiator is more than capable of handling its cooling needs.
Intriguingly, when quizzed about dual-GPU Intel Arc Pro graphics boards for AI inference applications, the company rep admitted that such boards are in development, pending market demand.
Here's the kicker: the BMG-G21 is a relatively entry-level GPU, meaning that we aren't expecting these boards to offer top-notch performance in AI or graphics applications. As a result, Sparkle, like other add-in-board manufacturers, will have to price their Arc Pro cards affordably to appeal to potential customers.
The Arc Pro B66 cards are scheduled to hit stores in the coming months, but we're yet to receive pricing details. Given that these cards are intended for servers and workstations, their costs will be heavily influenced by production volumes and other factors, with system integrators ultimately bearing the brunt of the financial burden.
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The technology forum Tom's Hardware reported the development of dual-GPU graphics boards by Sparkle, featuring the Intel Arc Pro B66, for AI inference applications. As these cards also cater to data-and-cloud-computing tasks, they represent a fusion of gadgets and artificial-intelligence technology. Despite being equipped with relatively entry-level BMG-G21 GPUs, the pricing of these cards remains a question as they approach market release.
