[CLOSED] Intel Arc A40 Pro Single Slot GPUs

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IamSpartacus

IamSpartacus

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Tech Junky

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I got the sparkle version for $99 on Amazon because I needed qsv for transcoding video files. There's a couple of OEM versions with/out the power cable requirements and single/dual slot options.

I just don't see what makes the A40 the better option. Sure, it's a single slot compact card but on the technical level it's the same card. Just my observation and I was curious because I had not heard of the A40.
 
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IamSpartacus

IamSpartacus

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Tech Junky said:
I got the sparkle version for $99 on Amazon because I needed qsv for transcoding video files. There's a couple of OEM versions with/out the power cable requirements and single/dual slot options.

I just don't see what makes the A40 the better option. Sure, it's a single slot compact card but on the technical level it's the same card. Just my observation and I was curious because I had not heard of the A40.
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Links for US region? But yes, form factor is the main selling point over the desktop Arc versions.
 
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Samir

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Tech Junky said:
I just don't see what makes the A40 the better option. Sure, it's a single slot compact card but on the technical level it's the same card. Just my observation and I was curious because I had not heard of the A40.
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Generally it's form factor since there are far fewer cards in this size format, so there's a premium for them. You can easily see the differences here:
www.techpowerup.com

Intel Arc Pro A40 Specs

Intel DG2-128, 1700 MHz, 1024 Cores, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 6144 MB GDDR6, 2000 MHz, 96 bit
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
www.techpowerup.com

Intel Arc A380 Specs

Intel DG2-128, 2050 MHz, 1024 Cores, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, 6144 MB GDDR6, 1937 MHz, 96 bit
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
 
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Samir

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IamSpartacus said:
None of them are single slot.
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And that's generally what makes a 'low profile single slot no power' card more valuable as it has all 3 things while other cards have only one or two of these characteristics. It was the same with low profile cards of earlier generations--try to find a 1050ti low profile or 750ti low profile with no power requirement and cheap--hard to find. And the single slot versions, which barely even exist are the proverbial 'hen's teeth'.
 
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IamSpartacus

IamSpartacus

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Samir said:
And that's generally what makes a 'low profile single slot no power' card more valuable as it has all 3 things while other cards have only one or two of these characteristics. It was the same with low profile cards of earlier generations--try to find a 1050ti low profile or 750ti low profile with no power requirement and cheap--hard to find. And the single slot versions, which barely even exist are the proverbial 'hen's teeth'.
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Exactly. I'm sticking to of these in my server tomorrow.
 
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CyklonDX

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As far as i am aware you need to have display plugged in to the card for the av1 transcode to work. Not sure if you aren't forced to use windows with it too... keep in mind.
 
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IamSpartacus

IamSpartacus

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IamSpartacus

IamSpartacus

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CyklonDX said:
As far as i am aware you need to have display plugged in to the card for the av1 transcode to work. Not sure if you aren't forced to use windows with it too... keep in mind.
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I've seen people encoding with them headless in Linux/docker. It's just QSV in FFMPEG.
 
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CyklonDX

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I've seen people complain on intel community forum about this - if its been resolved then ignore my post.
 
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Tech Junky

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I use mine in Linux and it takes a bit of trickery to get it dialed in but, it's much more effective/efficient than CPU only on AMD.

Immediate results were 1/8th the time required but, still was using 75% CPU until I dialed it in with proper modules. Now with the correct modules and settings it's 10% CPU. Some files hit 1000 fps and others are a bit slower but depends on the original format.

The interesting thing about qsv and Arc cards is it doesn't change performance if you add more ram or xe cores. $100 or $350 cards perform the same. For games though it's likely different.
 
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Auggie

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Tech Junky said:
I use mine in Linux and it takes a bit of trickery to get it dialed in but, it's much more effective/efficient than CPU only on AMD.

Immediate results were 1/8th the time required but, still was using 75% CPU until I dialed it in with proper modules. Now with the correct modules and settings it's 10% CPU. Some files hit 1000 fps and others are a bit slower but depends on the original format.

The interesting thing about qsv and Arc cards is it doesn't change performance if you add more ram or xe cores. $100 or $350 cards perform the same. For games though it's likely different.
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Would you care to share what modules you added to get it to work properly?

AV encode mostly only uses the encoding blocks and a small amount of RAM of the GPU, almost all the rest of the GPU chip and memory goes unutilized for encoding and decoding media.
 
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Tech Junky

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Auggie said:
Would you care to share what modules you added to get it to work properly?
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Well, my issue is I run non standard kernel versions so the module versions by default don't line up with them. I use handbrake and they have a couple of options for install which complicates things a bit more.

I took the info from Intel and added those modules and then compiled handbrake because flatpak reminds me of snaps and I would rather not have odd package management.

I had to grab the modules manually and update others as well manually to get it working with lower resources. There's some additional add-ons that need to be installed to engage the GPU in handbrake properly.
 
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