Skilled’s Ranking
Professionals
- Quick body charges at excessive visible high quality settings
- 12GB reminiscence and bandwidth for 1440p gaming
- Low, low $249 worth
- Excellent ray tracing for worth class (beats RTX 4060)
- Bugs and efficiency oddities from 1st-gen Arc GPUs have been mounted
- Makes use of normal 8-pin energy connector
- XeSS in over 150 video games
- Effectively-designed, pretty compact Intel Restricted Version mannequin
Cons
- XeSS 2 and Xe Low Latency options want time to be carried out in video games
- Barely greater energy draw than rival price range GPUs (however nonetheless acceptable)
- Decrease than anticipated efficiency in COD: Black Ops 6 and Black Fantasy: Wukong
Our Verdict
With 12GB of reminiscence, excellent ray tracing chops, a single 8-pin energy connector, and the power to play 1440p video games with out extreme compromise, Intel’s $249 Arc B580 is the price range graphics card players have been begging for because the pandemic. It’s an outstanding choice for players who don’t wish to spend $400+ on a GPU.
Worth When Reviewed
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Greatest Pricing Right now
Intel’s $249 Arc B580 is the graphics card we’ve begged for because the pandemic.
That was the headline I used for our preliminary protection of Intel’s second-generation discrete graphics playing cards, as a result of it’s true – at the very least on paper. Nvidia and AMD have been nerfing the reminiscence system of sub-$350 graphics playing cards because the pandemic, limiting their greatest use to 1080p decision. In the meantime, players are more and more shopping for 1440p screens (a very tangible and inexpensive improve). Intel’s Arc B580 packs 12GB of VRAM to excel at 1440p gaming, with a $249 worth level that undercuts its rivals’ entry-level 1080p choices.
Now that we’ve spent every week testing and gaming on the Intel Arc B580, I can verify it: Intel’s $249 Arc B580 actually, actually is the graphics card we’ve begged for because the pandemic. It’s not excellent – efficiency lags behind the competitors in a pair notable video games, and we had been hoping for barely greater total outcomes – however on the whole, this graphics card outpunches the $300 Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600, with the lead rising even bigger at 1440p.
It is a nice graphics card for somebody who needs to play trendy PC video games with out mortgaging away their future. Take a look at the video above for a game-by-game, Photoshop-by-Photoshop evaluation of our testing. Under, we’ll current the identical benchmarks, however targeted in on the 5 key issues players must know earlier than shopping for the Intel Arc B580. Take a look at our preliminary Arc B580 announcement protection in order for you extra nitty-gritty technical info on the heart inside Intel’s new Xe 2-powered GPU.
1. The Arc B580 actually is constructed for 1440p gaming
Earlier than we wade into benchmarks, let’s rapidly contact on the Arc B580’s differentiator: This actually is a 1440p graphics card for $250, in an period when Nvidia and AMD’s 1440p graphics playing cards usually go for $400 or extra, and when spending lower than that usually restricts you to 1080p gameplay.
The Intel Arc B580 is a pleasant breath of contemporary air in an in any other case brutal decade for PC players on a price range.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
Delivering 1440p gaming requires two main issues: A GPU with sufficient oomph to energy all these pixels (which the Arc B580 achieves), and a reminiscence configuration with sufficient uncooked VRAM capability and bandwidth to maneuver these pixels.
The $300 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and $270 AMD Radeon RX 7600 wield 8GB reminiscence buffers that maintain efficiency again even at 1080p in some video games, paired with puny 128-bit reminiscence buffers that moreover throttle 1440p gaming potential. Making issues worse, turning on ray tracing or body era options gobble up further reminiscence no matter decision. Positive, you possibly can play some video games on these at 1440p with out difficulty, however they had been designed from the bottom as much as run at 1080p.
Intel
Intel, however, truly designed this GPU to deal with high-resolution 1440p gaming with aplomb. The Arc B580 packs an ample 12GB of GDDR6 reminiscence, fed by a much-wider 192-bit bus. The improved reminiscence system additionally helps when flipping on ray tracing or Intel’s XeSS upscaling expertise.
As you’ll see within the benchmarks under, Intel’s beefed-up reminiscence configuration could make an enormous distinction in efficiency in some video games. As you’re shopping the slides under, don’t merely take a look at common body charges – take a look at the minimal body instances, too, particularly at 1440p. If a sport runs out of VRAM capability, it’ll must hit your much-slower system reminiscence as a substitute, which may introduce stutters as body charges drop in affected scenes. That’s mirrored within the minimums under.
2. Intel Arc B580 efficiency benchmarks
We’ve examined the graphics playing cards above at each 1080p and 1440p decision. We’ve included some Adobe Photoshop and Premiere leads to the checklist, however will deal with gaming efficiency right here. Tl;dr? The Arc B580 affords compelling high-quality gameplay at each 1440p and 1080p decision, buying and selling wins and losses with its rivals.
If you happen to’re seeking to play PC video games with out breaking the financial institution, Intel’s Arc B580 is a no brainer.
Intel’s pre-launch inside benchmarks (see under) claimed the Arc B580 was a median of 10 % sooner than Nvidia’s RTX 4060 at 1440p decision. That’s undoubtedly believable, relying on the video games chosen, however outcomes had been a lot nearer in our personal assessments, which embody titles lacking from Intel’s sampling and account for a variety of sport and engine varieties.
At 1080p decision, the Arc B580 and RTX 4060 had been in a dead-heat in our benchmarks – with actually the identical whole variety of frames rendered throughout the 9 video games examined. At 1440p, the B580 was simply 0.6 % sooner on common (albeit usually with greater minimal body instances). If you happen to omit Black Fantasy: Wukong and Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6 (two video games which Intel advised us “are on the lower end of the titles vs. 4060 for us”), the lead opens as much as 4 % at each resolutions in our suite.
Dig deeper into the benchmarks, nonetheless, and also you’ll see Intel pulling a large lead over the RTX 4060 in Cyberpunk 2077, F1 24, and Returnal. In video games the place it attracts roughly even with the 4060 at 1080p, like Watch Canine Legion, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and Rainbow Six Siege (DX11 mode), it pulls forward at 1440p due to its extra succesful reminiscence configuration.
Backside line? Count on the Intel Arc B580 to ship roughly RTX 4060 efficiency and also you’ll be completely happy. Some video games reply actually, actually favorably to Intel’s structure and much outpace the 4060, nonetheless – and when you plan on gaming at 1440p, the Arc B580 has a transparent edge.
Do notice that Intel’s Arc GPUs require a CPU and motherboard with PCIe Resizable BAR enabled for optimum efficiency. Any PCs from this decade ought to help the expertise, however when you’re seeking to drop this into an older PC (say, one with a GTX 1060 inside), count on to see body charges decrease than those proven right here.
3. How do the drivers maintain up?
Very, very nicely. We’ve no vital complaints from our testing session. It’s an enormous enchancment over the Arc A-series, by which I began my evaluation with an in depth checklist of show-stopping bugs I’d encountered.
Intel’s finished huge work right here, and its software program engineers deserve applause. That mentioned, the expertise wasn’t fairly seamless, although none of those quibbles detracted from our total enjoyment of the cardboard.
Efficiency was considerably slower than rivals (however nonetheless stable) in Wukong and the newest Name of Responsibility, as talked about above. We additionally skilled crashing in Star Wars Outlaws, however that was mounted earlier than launch. The brand new Indiana Jones sport additionally suffered from poor efficiency, however there was no game-specific driver for it accessible to testers earlier than launch, so it’s an oddly timed edge case.
Aside from these minor blips, tester (and PCWorld YouTube mastermind) Adam Patrick Murray bumped into no issues, together with with the brand new settings-stuffed Intel Graphics Software program, which replaces final era’s Arc Management Panel. Listed below are his experiential notes:
“Aside from the video games within the take a look at suite, I additionally performed a little bit of Baldur’s Gate 3, Silent Hill 2 remake, and Stalker 2, configured to how I’d align settings if I owned this GPU. I discovered a snug expertise (for me) at 1440p, excessive settings, and XeSS in High quality mode. So even in among the latest video games this felt like a stable 1440p card if you’re okay with a little bit of upscaling. I’ll be curious to listen to different experiences to see if it falls down anyplace, however so long as you aren’t a day 1 gamer I’ve no drawback recommending this to a normie.
As somebody who video games on the extremes (high-end desktop and handheld) I used to be truthfully shocked by the efficiency out of this $250 card — particularly in ray tracing.”
4. Intel’s Arc B580 ray tracing rocks
…talking of!
Intel’s second-generation ray tracing {hardware}, which improved upon key technical features by 1.5x to 2x over the debut Arc playing cards, completely rocks. Ray tracing was already a robust level for first-gen Arc, and the ray tracing enhancements within the Xe 2 structure put Intel’s GPU firmly forward of Nvidia’s vaunted ray tracing in Cyberpunk and Returnal. Issues pulled nearer in Watch Canine Legion with ray tracing on Excessive, however the B580’s reminiscence configuration helped it open a 7.5 % lead at 1440p decision.
AMD has been struggling to deliver ray tracing efficiency as much as par in its Radeon graphics playing cards, however it’s already a power for Intel.
5. XeSS 2 Body Technology and Xe Low Latency: Welcome, however not prepared but
Intel
Alongside the Arc B580, Intel can be launching a pair of latest performance-boosting options designed to tackle Nvidia’s DLSS 3: XeSS 2 Body Technology and Xe Low Latency (XeLL).
These applied sciences work hand-in-hand, inserting AI-generated frames between “real” ones to enhance visible smoothness, then utilizing XeLL to cut back the latency launched by these AI frames. It’s precisely how DLSS 3 and Nvidia Reflex holistically work together, however with a key twist: It’s finished by way of AI fashions on the Xe 2 cores’ XMX extensions. Nvidia’s DLSS 3 requires devoted Optical Circulate Accelerator {hardware}, which is why it’s restricted to RTX 40-series GPUs. Intel, in the meantime, expects XeSS 2 to work simply advantageous on older Arc A-series playing cards and even the “Battlemage” B-series GPUs embedded into Intel’s Lunar Lake laptops.
It’s thrilling stuff, and contemplating how rapidly Intel’s XeSS Tremendous Decision was adopted (it’s already in over 150 video games), I’d hope it to begin turning up in video games rapidly. However on December 13, launch day, solely F1 24 is predicted to ship with XeSS 2 – and a bug in a second pre-launch evaluation driver by accident erased the aptitude, leaving us unable to check it in time for this evaluation.
These are the video games that may help XeSS 2 first.
Intel
Luckily, the XeSS Tremendous Decision characteristic in these 150 video games works simply advantageous with the Arc B580, able to ship sooner body charges with little-to-no visible high quality loss. I don’t assume upscaling applied sciences like DLSS, XeSS, and AMD’s FSR look good at 1080p decision – the diminished pixel depend impacts closing visible high quality. However XeSS SR’s wider adoption will probably be a boon when enjoying at 1440p, driving efficiency even greater, and can assist make intensive video games falling beneath the 60fps mark extra playable, no matter decision. It’s particularly useful once you flip on ray tracing, which may completely hammer body charges.
Must you purchase the Intel Arc B580?
If you happen to’re on the lookout for a stable all-around (new) graphics card for beneath $350, I strongly advocate giving Intel’s new GPU a protracted, laborious look.
Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry
If you happen to’re seeking to play video games with out breaking the financial institution, Intel’s Arc B580 is a no brainer. It handles 1440p gaming in type, in contrast to its rivals, and its 12GB of reminiscence means you gained’t want to show down graphics settings at 1080p in cutting-edge video games – one thing the 8GB GeForce RTX 4060 and Radeon 7600 can’t obtain. It makes use of a regular 8-pin energy connector, can run even sooner in video games that help XeSS, and – shocker – is definitely an inexpensive dimension, in an period when GPUs usually exhibit Godzilla-like proportions. Maybe most significantly, the rampant bugs and efficiency points that plagued first-gen Arc GPUs are gone now.
Choosing the Arc B580 means foregoing Nvidia’s vaunted DLSS and content material creation capabilities, however these aren’t options many players will use on an entry-level graphics card. The 1440p gaming chops and 12GB of VRAM greater than make up for these sacrifices, for my part. Even when Nvidia and AMD dropped costs to match the B580, Intel’s reminiscence benefit would nonetheless give it the sting in my guide – at the very least till these rivals unleash new mainstream next-gen GPUs someday later subsequent yr.
Whereas I hoped that Intel’s card can be a bit sooner throughout the board in comparison with the RTX 4060, what I mentioned within the intro holds true: Intel’s $249 Arc B580 is the graphics card we’ve begged for because the pandemic. We haven’t seen a $250 graphics card this compelling this decade – you’d must go all the best way again to the halcyon days of the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 480 to discover a price range GPU with a worth proposition this sturdy.
Yay competitors!
