The Graphics Card Dilemma

Ever since I learned about the AV1 encoding format and it's various benefits, I am eager to get my hands on a Graphics card that supports this format. I am currently using nVidia Quadro P620 and it's been a great journey so far. I captured lots of game play and encoded countless videos with this card without any hiccups. Unfortunately, this card doesn't have any AV1 encoding which is why I am in the market once again looking for a card that supports AV1.

Last year, I wrote another post on GPU issue but I eventually didn't get any new graphics card. Now that AV1 becoming an important issue for me, I am taking a serious look at the market. After browsing through number of GPU manufacturer, it became evidently clear that only Intel is making GPUs that has AV1 encoders within the reasonable price range that I am willing to spend.

Even though Nvidia has number of GPU with similar encoder, their price tag seems to be much higher than I anticipated. Another important criteria that made the entire search process even more complicated is that I am looking for single slot low profile GPU. Also I am not looking for any power hungry GPU either. Turns out, few Intel ARC GPU can provide what exactly I am looking for. Intel ARC Pro A40 (6GB) and Arc A310 (4GB) seems to be best candidate for my purpose.

After spending few minutes searching for various pros and cons, I decided to go ahead with the Pro A40 even though it's double the price of A310. Perhaps, the biggest problem is Pro A40 is not available as a retail item rather it's and OEM device. In other words, I would have to get it from large computer brands like Dell or HP and they are not directly selling them. Those cards are mostly available on their various computer models.

Somehow, I manage to order the card recently. Surprisingly, after ordering the item I noticed the seller dropped the listing and marked it as "discontinued" item. I reached out to them and they confirmed that I will receive my item regardless but they are waiting for confirmation from HP. I waited for over a week but didn't receive any shipping information. So, the next best logical idea was to reach out to them asking for the shipping statues. The seller confirmed that HP received the request for the item and they will ship the card as fast as they can.

Not sure when they will ship the item. I am pretty much stuck at this point.