How popular "Elden Ring" was two years ago, I believe we don't need to revisit the old things. After winning all the game awards in 2022 and early 2023, FromSoftware's Elden Ring mega expansion "Shadow of the Golden Tree" released this year can be said to have once again activated the enthusiasm of players. And with the release of "The Shadow of the Golden Tree", Blue Halberd has also launched the Ruixuan A770 PHOTON 16G OC Elden Ring Golden Tree Shadow co-branded graphics card, although in a sense we have speculated on the performance evaluation of the Ruixuan A770 several times, but its co-branded model is obviously still a new thing.
Speaking of which, this is already the third co-branded graphics card of Blue Halberd, the first two are Ruixuan A750 PHOTON OC W Asian Games co-branded model and Valorant custom Asian Games special edition graphics card. As a young graphics card brand, the activity of Blue Halberd in the linkage can be said to be no worse than that of some old manufacturers, which may be the strength of Intel's core partners - not only to play co-branding, but also to cooperate with well-known big IPs.
As a rule, the spec sheet is still placed at the beginning. Although I'm sure some of you have been able to recite it.
Design
There is no doubt that the focus of co-branded graphics cards is on the exterior rather than the interior, and the Ruixuan A770 PHOTON 16G OC Elden Ring Golden Tree Phantom co-branded graphics card (hereinafter referred to as Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom) is no exception. In fact, the packaging box alone is eye-catching, and the cover of "Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Golden Tree" occupies the C position, and only the left and right corners remind us that this is a sharp A770 graphics card.
Even the back of the box is a screenshot of Elden Ring's game, which takes up most of the space. The rest of the blue part is the introduction of the graphics card features and configuration requirements.
Let's turn our attention to the graphics card itself. IT'S EASY TO SEE THAT THE GRAPHICS CARD IS BASED ON THE ARC A770 PHOTON 16G OC BLACK, BUT THE STRIKING SIGNATURE INTEL BLUE IS REPLACED BY THE GOLD OF ELDEN RING. This gold color is not particularly dazzling, but slightly darker, which is more in line with the game's setting.
The regular twill on the air deflector and 11 straight-blade 90mm fans are the signature designs of the Blue Halberd PHOTON series graphics cards. Like the box, the Elden Ring logo is also on the C position of the fan pack.
As with the original Blue Halberd PHOTON series graphics cards, it's hard to ignore this decorative label that protrudes from the top right corner of the graphics card. Not only is it golden, but the material used is also metal, which is significantly different from the main color and material of the air deflector. On the whole, it actually plays the role of a finishing touch. And the blue halberd also painted a pattern on it, which is very exquisite.
Since we have come to the far right, we naturally cannot ignore the design of the end. The blue halberd is printed with the LOGO of "Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Golden Tree" at the end, and this LOGO still has a concave and convex texture to the touch. It goes well with the gold label on the right.
Although the tail is visible to be divided into upper and lower areas, they are connected together and are part of the wind shield.
Coming to the side, a gold line runs through the east and west, strengthening the appearance of the side, which is exactly the design of the co-branded graphics card: this line is not colored in the original blue halberd PHOTON, and the line of the Asian Games co-branded model is fuchsia. As with the front, a bit of gold in the pitch black is hard not to notice, and it is a very striking design.
Like many graphics cards, the Arc A770 Golden Tree Shadow has a large enough backplate to make an excellent drawing board. Bounded on the back of the core, on the left is a totem composed of Messermore's family crest and the PHOTON logo, while on the right is the cover of "Elden Ring: The Shadow of the Golden Tree" - Messermo sitting on the throne. Not only do these patterns look delicate enough, but they also feel special to the touch: like the game logo at the end, they are not flat, and they have the feeling of being layered on top of each other. Lan Ji called this a "relief feel", which is true.
In addition, the blue halberd also added a circle of patterns around the back panel, and the decorations used in the edges and corners are different, so it can be said that the details are also in place.
Internal structure
Unlike the appearance, the Golden Rule does not and does not need to interfere with the interior of the graphics card. After all, the shell of Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom is very tightly breaded, even if there are any easter eggs printed on the PCB, players can't see it. Therefore, here we will focus on the thermal module and the components used on the PCB.
As a graphics card with a power consumption close to 300W, Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom uses 5 heat pipes + copper bottom direct touch heat dissipation scheme. You can see that the base covers the core and memory parts. In addition, the heat dissipation design for the power supply area can be seen on both sides.
The PCB of this graphics card is actually quite long. This can be seen in the hollowed-out area of the back panel. The ACM-G10 core is directly above the PCIe gold finger, and around it are 8 GDDR6 video memories from Samsung, model number K4ZAF325BM-HC18, each with a capacity of 2GB, a bit width of 32bit, and a rate of 18Gbps.
ACM-G10 core
Samsung GDDR6 video memory
The power supply is designed to be 6+4 phases, and it can be seen from the logo that they all use the custom inductor Tide of the Blue Halberd. The 6-phase on the right is to supply power to the core, the MOSFET is the MP86956 of the core source system, the continuous output current can reach 70A, and the core PWM is also the MP2979A of the core source system, a 6-phase controller.
Under the slope of the core PWM, there is also a chip with the Blue Halberd logo on the silk screen, model BE2016, which is the Blue Halberd's self-developed light chip Blues, which is used to control the lights on the side. In addition to being good-looking, it can also play the role of a warning light.
The core source system MP86956
芯源系统MP2979A和蓝戟灯光芯片Blues
Coming to the left, the 2 phases above are the MP86941 of the core source system; The 2-phase MOSFET below is the SM7302ESKP of large and medium integrated circuits; They are responsible for video memory and GPU I/O power, respectively. In addition, there is a PWM in the upper right corner of the back, which is the MP2940A of the core source system.
The core source system MP2940A
Test platform and methodology
This test platform is still the same as the core test platform used in the previous game demand evaluation, with the Core i9-14900KS and MSI MPG Z790 CARBON MAX WIFI II dark motherboard as the core. Because in the past tests, the benchmark scores of Ruixuan A770 are relatively high, so this time we also skip the benchmark test and directly look at the part that is most relevant to the actual experience of most users - the game frame rate.
Gaming testing
It's a lot of fun to do gaming testing with today's Intel Arc graphics cards, and it's okay to do it every once in a while: developers are really diligent in updating drivers, and they bring game-specific optimizations every time. For example, the 31.0.101.5590 WHQL version used in this test was optimized for Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Golden Tree, and also improved the performance of older games such as Chivalry 2 and Crysis in certain settings.
We selected 6 triple-A games for testing, and 4 of them support ray tracing. Let's focus on Elden Ring: its test scene was held on the new map of Shadow of the Golden Tree, the Shadowlands. And because Elden Ring is a locked 60fps game, in order to show the real performance of the A770, we used a frame rate unlocking tool and ran it in offline mode. For other games, we'll also indicate the specific graphics settings used.
2K resolution
1080P resolution
Thanks to the continuous driver optimization, we can see that Ruixuan A770 has been able to run the tested 3A games without ray tracing at 2K relatively smoothly, which is a huge improvement compared to when it was first launched. At 1080p, games like Elden Ring, F1 24, and Dying Light 2 can even reach around 100fps, and can reach or exceed 60fps with medium ray tracing turned on, which is still quite good.
Considering that the vast majority of players need Elden Ring's online system, there are always a few people who unlock the frame rate, so combined with the results of our test, it can be said that in the normal gameplay scene (locked at 60fps), the Arc A770 can bring a smooth enough and stutter-free 2K raster gaming experience.
Temperature test
The graphics card temperature test and power consumption test are performed at the same time. We conducted the tests on an open platform at an ambient temperature of about 26 degrees Celsius. The standby temperature is recorded after 10 minutes of standby after entering the system, while the full load temperature is recorded after 10 minutes of running the Time Spy Extreme stress test in 3DMark. The software that records the data is GPU-Z.
The temperature of Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom in standby is stable in the range of 52-54 degrees Celsius. Its GPU frequency is 600MHz when standby, and the memory frequency is 2000MHz. Its fan is intelligently started and stopped, and the fan does not rotate most of the time during standby, occasionally turning at 1000RPM for a few seconds. At full load, the GPU can reach a maximum temperature of 67 degrees Celsius, and then stabilize in the range of 64-65 degrees Celsius. Overall it's not too hot either.
Power consumption test
The power consumption of the graphics card is recorded through the PCAT suite. Since it records data every 0.1 seconds, the standby power consumption and full load power consumption we are showing here the data of the last minute. In standby power consumption, Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom is 50W on average, which is also the characteristic of a graphics card equipped with ACM-G10 core, from A580 to A770. As for the full-load power consumption, this graphics card averages around 269W, and it can go to 302W at the highest. If you recommend a power supply, in fact, 650W will do.
Noise test
The speed of Ruixuan A770 Golden Tree Phantom is around 1800-1900RPM when fully loaded. Because GPU-Z can't read the percentage data, we can only try more in the Ruixuan control panel, and the final percentage is about 48%. We then sent it to a sound-attenuating lab with an ambient noise of 15 dBA, and measured a noise of 46.4 dBA at a distance of 30 cm from the noise detector and the graphics card.
summary
The A770 PHOTON 16G OC Elden Ring Golden Tree Shadow co-branded graphics card first met the expectations of game fans and DIY enthusiasts in terms of visuals and workmanship: the unique design language of the Blue Halberd maintains the sense of technology of the whole card, and the gold and flames from "Elden Ring" create enough mystery. On this graphics card, you can see both the clean lines of the body and the intricate patterns engraved on it, the blend of silicon crystal and magic, and the binary seems to have a bit of rune, the two are integrated but do not conflict with each other, this feeling is quite amazing.
Secondly, it is the conclusion of performance, of course, this is not only for this co-branded graphics card, but also for the original Ruixuan A770. If you don't turn on high-level ray tracing, Ruixuan A770 has no problem running "Elden Ring" smoothly at 2K and 1080P resolutions. And for other raster games, Ruixuan A770 can also have a good experience. Considering the update frequency of Intel drivers, I believe that this graphics card can continue to improve. So you can use it not only to roam the Shadowlands and challenge Ratarn, but also to fight other AAA games.