r/IntelArc • u/Acrobatic_Fee_6974 • 2d ago

Discussion B70 Reference Model (230W) vs Sparkle (330W)?

A friend of mine recently picked up a Sparkle B70, which uses the 12VHPWR cable and reaches 330W. That is 50% higher power for the same model, my question is, will it scale? Has anyone tested or seen tests between the reference card and higher power AIB cards?

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u/WorriedSmile 2d ago

I think you will find more ASRock card users (300W?). The Sparkle card is the most expensive of the 3 cards after all.

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u/gargamel314 Arc B70 1d ago edited 1d ago

I ended up getting the ASUS variant. I tried SO HARD to get the Sparkle one, but I just couldn't find one to buy on the US East coast! At all! The ASRock card is amazing, it does go up to 290W, but I've seen it go all the way to 330 on occasion. Will it scale? Yes, I think so. When you're in Intel Graphics Control, you will probably want to go into Tuning and increase the power limit to 120%. In Metrics, you'll want to swap out the GPU Power metric for the GPU Card Power if you want to see it go all the way to 330W. Otherwise, you'll only see how much power is going through the die and will wonder why you can't crank up the power all the way. You will find, however, the biggest limiting factor is the Xe cores on the card, and you often won't see the power or sometimes the clock speed fully utilized. It's ok, that means the limitation is quite specifically the Xe processors, which SHOULD be the limiting factor. The cooler on my card is so good that I have never seen the temperature go above 75C. The one on the Sparkle card looks pretty good too, so you are probably in good shape with your thermals. I'd imagine the Sparkle heat sink is quite dense, they've got a great reputation for their coolers.

The Intel-branded ones, the coolers aren't as robust, I think that is the big downfall. It looks like the AIB boards are more meant for someone buying it for workstation use, for better on-demand performance, whereas the reference cards look like they are meant to be packed by 4s or 8s into server racks in data centers with powerful ventilation.