Intel’s $249 Arc B580 is the GPU we’ve begged for since the pandemic

Intel heard your screams of anguish, PC gamers. Budget graphics cards that are actually worth your money have all but disappeared this pandemic/crypto/AI-crazed decade, with modern “budget” GPUs going for $300 or more, while simultaneously being gimped with substandard memory configurations that limit your gaming to 1080p resolution unless you make some serious visual sacrifices.

No more.

Today, Intel announced the $249 Arc B580 graphics card (launching December 13) and $219 Arc B570 (January 16), built using the company’s next-gen “Battlemage” GPU architecture. The Arc B580 not only comes with enough firepower to best Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 in raw frame rates, it has a 12GB memory system target-built for 1440p gaming – something the 8GB RTX 4060 sorely lacks despite costing more.

Intel

As if that wasn’t an appealing enough combination (did I mention this thing is $249?!), Intel is upping the ante with XeSS 2, a newer version of its AI super-resolution technology that adds Nvidia DLSS 3-like frame generation for even more performance, as well as Xe Low Latency (XeLL), a feature that can greatly reduce latency in supported games.

Add it all up and Intel’s Arc B580 seems poised to really, truly shake things up for PC gamers on a budget – something we haven’t seen in years and years. If you’re still rocking an OG GTX 1060, take a serious look at this upgrade. Let’s dig in.

Bonus! If you’re reading this the morning of the announcement, join our Full Nerd podcast LIVE at 1:30pm ET/10:30am PT today for an Arc B580, XeSS 2, and Battlemage deep dive with Intel Fellow Tom Petersen.

Meet Battlemage and the Arc B580

Intel’s debut “Alchemist” Arc GPUs launched in late 2022, rife with all the bugs and issues you’d expect from the first generation of a product as complex as modern graphics cards. Intel diligently ironed those out over the subsequent months, delivering driver updates that supercharged performance and squashed bugs at a torrid pace.

In a briefing with press, Intel Fellow Tom Petersen said a major force during Battlemage’s development was improving software efficiency, to be better able to unleash the full power of Intel’s hardware. But remember, it ran on first-gen hardware, too. Battlemage improves efficiency on that front, using tricks like transforming the vector engines from two slices into a single structure, supporting native SIMD16 instructions, and beefing up the capabilities of the Xe core’s ray tracing and XMX AI instructions to, yes, make everything run smoother and better than before.

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I’ve included a bunch of technical slides above, so nerds can pick through the details. But here’s the upshot: The Arc B580 delivers 70 percent more performance per Xe core than last gen’s Arc A750, and 50 percent more performance per watt, per Intel.

Cue Keanu Reeves: Whoa. That’s absolutely bonkers. You almost never see performance leaps that substantial from a single-generation advance anymore!

Intel

That’s at an architectural level; the slide above shows the specific hardware configurations found in the Intel B580 and B570. A couple of things stand out here, first and foremost the memory configuration.

Nvidia and AMD’s current $300 gaming options come with just 8GB of VRAM, tied to a paltry 128-bit bus that all but forces you to play at 1080p resolution. The Arc B580 comes with an ample 12GB of fast GDDR6 memory over a wider 192-bit bus – so yes, this GPU is truly built for 1440p gaming, unlike its rivals. The Arc B570 cuts things down a bit to hit its $219 price tag but the same broad strokes apply.

Also worth noting: Intel’s new GPUs feature a bog standard 8-pin power connector (though third-party models may add a second one to support Battlemage’s ample overclocking chops). No fumbling with fugly 12VHPWR connectors here.

Intel’s homebrew Limited Edition reference GPUs will return for the B580 in a newer, smaller design with blow-through cooling. You’ll also be able to pick up third-party custom cards from the partners shown above, and the B570’s launch in January will be exclusive to custom boards, with no Limited Edition reference planned.

Intel

As part of the launch, Intel is also introducing a redesigned gaming app with advanced overclocking capabilities, including the ability to tweak voltage and frequency offsets.

Intel Arc B580 performance details

Now let’s dig into actual performance, using Intel’s supplied numbers.

Intel says the $249 Arc B580 plays games an average of 25 percent faster than last generation’s higher-tier $279 Arc A770 across a test suite of 40 games. Compared to the competition, Intel says the Arc B580 runs an average of 10 percent faster than Nvidia’s RTX 4060 – though crucially, those numbers were taken at 1440p resolution rather than the 1080p resolution the overly nerfed RTX 4060 works best at.

Intel

Intel also made a point of stressing how the RTX 4060’s limited 8GB of RAM over a 128-bit bus can directly impact performance today. The sli