As excitement for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree increases by the day, Gunnir is striking while the hype is hot with custom Intel graphics cards. Both Gunnir’s Arc A770 and A750 feature prominent stylings and key art taken from FromSoftware’s upcoming DLC that will undoubtedly please Tarnished and Elden Lords alike.
While neither Intel Arc A770 nor A750 are the best graphics cards on the market, each packs more than enough GPU horsepower to render Lands Between in all their glory at modestly high settings and resolutions. Still, performance is ultimately of secondary importance when it comes to collectors items like these special edition pixel pushers. As much as I’d welcome more powerful AMD Radeon or Nvidia GeForce options emerge, it’s hard to deny the allure of these Arc cards in lieu of any alternatives.
Gunnir has only shared retail packaging for one of the Intel GPUs, Arc A750, via its Weibo page. However, this Elden Ring design is part of the company’s Photon series, the branding of which makes a stylised appearance here too. As such, a more performant Arc A770 variant seems very likely.
The backplate of each Arc graphics card really is the star of the show, featuring the likeness of Messmer the Impaler taken straight from the Shadow of the Erdtree cover art. The shades of crimson red and shimmering gold are unusual next to Intel and Gunnir’s usual palette of blues but make for an awesome change of pace. As a welcome, subtle touch, Gunnir has surrounded the backplate with a gold leaf motif as found in other Elden Ring materials.
Gunnir’s has naturally concentrated its efforts to spruce up its Intel Arc graphics cards on their backplates. That said, the company has at least added a splash of Elden Ring stylings to this special edition’s fan array. While the game’s logo takes centre stage, Gunnir has placed coloured its logo in a matching gold on both the leftmost and rightmost fans.
I do wish that Gunnir had replaced the LED on the side with the symbol from either the base game of Elden Ring of its Shadow of Erdtree DLC. At this point, though, I am admittedly nit-picking, and finding ways to justify against ordering this gorgeous graphics card. Here’s hoping that custom designs like this are a sign that Intel and its board partners still have faith in Arc GPUs.
We’re sadly still yet to hear anything official from Intel about its Arc Battlemage discrete graphics cards, coming up to two years since the first Alchemist GPUs hit the scene. With both Nvidia and AMD seemingly gearing up release their next generation pixel pushers, the pressure is on for Intel to make a move.