Sparkle may sound familiar to some, but not to all. Roughly speaking, it was an exclusive partner of NVIDIA that offered cards in the early 2000s. However, in 2017, the end came with the GTX 700s. Since then, the company had been focusing on embedded solutions and aimed at a smaller market.
Today, we learn that the company is making a comeback in the graphics card sector. For this, the company is focusing on Intel’s offer, where the competition is less fierce, let’s say. Indeed, apart from ASRock, Acer with its A770 BiFrost or Gunnar, it is not really hustling!
Sparkle: three customized Intel cards!
For the occasion, the company offers us three cards, frankly very pretty. With the A380, the company puts forward a model with a single fan, very compact. This is typically the kind of card that we would see in an ITX type configuration. The fan blows on a machined aluminum block. The card does not require an auxiliary power supply and runs at 2000 MHz boost, nothing extraordinary.
On the other hand, with the Orc model, we go up in range since we pass on an A750. The card features a larger heatsink with two fans. It is de facto more imposing and more worked with heatpipes and aluminum fins. Similarly, the card will require two power supply connectors in PCIe 6 and 8 pins. Once again, not much change in terms of frequency with a GPU running at 2200 MHz. Intel’s card points at 2400 MHz.
In the end, the Titan is the biggest model with its three-fan heatsink. We find what was done with the Orc with the ThermalSync, a LED bar synchronized with the temperature of the card. Attention to the dimensions since we go from 222 mm to 305 mm in length for a height of 2.5 slots. The frequency increases to 2300 MHz, as does the auxiliary power supply, which will require two 8-pin PCIe.
Finally, we will retain a nice bluish tint of these cards with a ribbed fairing. A matter of taste, but we really like it!
Here are the Sparkle datasheets !