News Intel announces the Arc B580 and Arc B570 GPUs priced at $249 and $219 — Battlemage brings much-needed competition to the budget graphics card market

[User of Computers]

Curious if these will require ReBar as Alchemist did

GN said that Intel said it would require ReBar to work properly, just like the first generation.

 

[DS426]

"The testing was done at 1440p, as Intel says that's the target resolution for its new GPU. Nvidia said the RTX 4060 targeted 1080p gaming, though we'd argue that was far more about saddling the GPU with only 8GB of VRAM than it was about the raw compute available."

128-bit mem GPU's tend to struggle at modern [native] 1440p while 192-bit ones fair much better -- look at the 6750XT vs. the 4060 for example. Yes, it's also 12 GB VRAM vs. 8 GB and sufficient VRAM tends to be the popular talking point in recent times, but the 4060's little 128-bit bus somewhat limits its potential considering its compute as mentioned. This is what tells me that nVidia targeted 1080P with the 4060, and of course then 16 GB of VRAM doesn't really make sense for that mem bus size, even as much as we enthusiasts and gamers would appreciate that sort of "generosity" from nVidia.

I don't think I see the 5000 series taking a significantly different approach; if anything, they'll double down on cache and whatever other green magic they can conjure up. After all, they'll be able to utilize GDDR6X and GDDR7 to get more memory bandwidth out of the same lanes.

Another great GPU article -- thank you, Jarred!

 

[ohio_buckeye]

This looks very interesting. If the performance is where they say, if they can market it right this could be a winner. The big thing to overcome I think is branding from nvidia.

 

[palladin9479]

I'm hoping this turns out well, budget space really needs something there.

 

[tommtajlor]

So gen on gen (A580- $179) this delivers roughly 40-45% more performance for exactly 40% more money, and adds an extra 4gb of vram? Do i get it right? 😬

 

[thestryker]

GN said that Intel said it would require ReBar to work properly, just like the first generation.

Looks like they got it from the Sparkle specifications rather than Intel, but I'd say it's as reliable.

https://www.sparkle.com.tw/en/B580-TITAN

edit: looks like it's also on Intel's boxes so I wonder why they didn't mention it in the press information https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-arc-b580-battlemage-unboxing-preview/3.html

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I’m definitely interested to see performance. Might help Intel weather their current circumstances.

 

[SocDriver]

They announced just in time to completely miss Black Friday, and by extension, the holiday shopping season.

I bet somebody lost their job over that silly blunder...

Nope, they timed it so that they could clear old inventory during Black Friday and now early adopters will have a chance to pay full price right before or after Christmas and ahead of Nvidia or AMD releasing new cards. If anything they timed it pretty good.

 

[W0bbo]

"Intel says Arc B580 delivers around 40–50 percent higher AI performance than the RTX 4060. That's going after some pretty low-hanging fruit, as the RTX 4060 isn't exactly an AI powerhouse"

Your own stable diffusion benchmarks contradict this. I'd argue the 4060s 200+ AI TOPS with fp8 (Nvidia claims about 242!) actually is indeed a "powerhouse", and this very article isn't claiming the B580 is doing any better than that - 117 TOPS at best, and as you say, at 50% more power consumption! As far as I can tell, Arc still doesn't support sparsity OR fp8, and both are relevant to modern AI use, particularly the latter. I have great skepticism that either new Arc card will beat a 4060 in real world AI performance for any application that supports fp8, but 12GB of VRAM may make a difference for language models...

 

[SSGBryan]

I dont see the point of B570 at 220 USD. Makes more sense at 200 USD. Everyone is going to stretch and get the B580.

Hope the driver updates boosts the performance to more than 10% greater than 4060. With AMD's RDNA4 launch, Intel's win would be short lived, like 2 or 3 months max. And 2 more months, you will have the 5060.

Looking at the x060 performance and the TPU performance charts, & using the 2060 super as the base line.

RTX 3060 - 03% performance uplift
RTX 4060 - 22% performance uplift

I wouldn't expect too much from the 5060, especially if it is as vram starved as the 4060 was.

I'll be adding a B580 to my Intel system.

 

[palladin9479]

I wouldn't expect too much from the 5060, especially if it is as vram starved as the 4060 was.

Then 4060 wasn't VRAM starved, the 16GB version that was floating around proved as much. It's memory bandwidth starved, that 128-bit interface just isn't able to move data fast enough. If you look you'll see that these Intel dGPU's are 192 and 160 bit wide, so doesn't look to be starved. With current DRAM densities it's 2GB of VRAM for each 32-bit memory bus. You can daisy chain DRAM chips for double capacity but the same bandwidth, which is what the 16GB 4060 did.

 

[Gururu]

The price is right. If it can be called a 1440 card once benchmarks are posted, then this is a strong effort.

 

[W0bbo]

Then 4060 wasn't VRAM starved, the 16GB version that was floating around proved as much. It's memory bandwidth starved, that 128-bit interface just isn't able to move data fast enough. If you look you'll see that these Intel dGPU's are 192 and 160 bit wide, so doesn't look to be starved. With current DRAM densities it's 2GB of VRAM for each 32-bit memory bus. You can daisy chain DRAM chips for double capacity but the same bandwidth, which is what the 16GB 4060 did.

Memory bandwidth is about a lot more than the bus width, the 4060 is not "starved", in fact it outperforms many GPUs with more memory in many games and applications. I'm almost 100% sure the 5060 will have more memory bandwidth overall than the B580 regardless of bus width.

 

[rluker5]

This card looks like the new Polaris. Or more recently a more efficient 6700XT that does good raytracing and upscaling that costs less than a used 6700xt. I was really hoping for the 32 core version and I didn't like how the fans looked on the LE at first, but after seeing the assembly animation clip ion this video they are starting to grow on me.

View: https://youtu.be/Dl81n3ib53Y?t=563

Especially from an efficient volume perspective. I really want the 2 slot version so it looks like LE for me.
It will be nice seeing how well it does vs my A750.

 

[tamalero]

Nice write up. I will be an early adopter just like the A750. 12GB of vram will be nice. Let’s hope drivers are mature enough.

is not that the point? aka using the classic cinema style bait price.
Where the "bigger bucket" appears to be better value than the middle one.

 

[wwenze1]

B570 is so bad compared to B580 just for a 12% lower price.

 

[Loadedaxe]

This card looks like the new Polaris. Or more recently a more efficient 6700XT that does good raytracing and upscaling that costs less than a used 6700xt. I was really hoping for the 32 core version and I didn't like how the fans looked on the LE at first, but after seeing the assembly animation clip ion this video they are starting to grow on me.

View: https://youtu.be/Dl81n3ib53Y?t=563

Especially from an efficient volume perspective. I really want the 2 slot version so it looks like LE for me.
It will be nice seeing how well it does vs my A750.

I love the way the A750 LE looks, and this one looks pretty nice as well. I am looking forward to it.

 

[hennes]

I dont see the point of B570 at 220 USD. Makes more sense at 200 USD. Everyone is going to stretch and get the B580.

Hope the driver updates boosts the performance to more than 10% greater than 4060. With AMD's RDNA4 launch, Intel's win would be short lived, like 2 or 3 months max. And 2 more months, you will have the 5060.

The B570 was listed as 150W. Assuming all power from PCI-e connectors, then a single power connection would suffice for the B570, while needed two for the B580. That might not bother enthousiasts, but it likely is important to system builders.

Other than that: I agree. If these two were the only choice then I would go for the B580.

 

[palladin9479]

The B570 was listed as 150W. Assuming all power from PCI-e connectors, then a single power connection would suffice for the B570, while needed two for the B580. That might not bother enthousiasts, but it likely is important to system builders.

Other than that: I agree. If these two were the only choice then I would go for the B580.

I'm seeing the B570 for space / power limited SFF setups, especially if it comes in single slot or a small two slot design.

 

[rluker5]

I love the way the A750 LE looks, and this one looks pretty nice as well. I am looking forward to it.

In the video Intel claims the B580 runs at half the noise level as the previous LE cards.

 

[Notton]

Intel graphs pit the B580 against the RTX 4060, and the claim is 10% faster on average at 1080p and 1440p.
It's a shame they couldn't hit 20%, because that would have nipped at the heels of an RTX 4060Ti

 

[Giroro]

Nope, they timed it so that they could clear old inventory during Black Friday and now early adopters will have a chance to pay full price right before or after Christmas and ahead of Nvidia or AMD releasing new cards. If anything they timed it pretty good.

But when everybody wanting to upgrade bought a new GPU/PC on sale 2 days ago, is there anybody left to pay full price in a week?

Probably not a lot.

 

[thestryker]

The B570 was listed as 150W. Assuming all power from PCI-e connectors, then a single power connection would suffice for the B570, while needed two for the B580.

Two connectors aren't required for the B580 (stock 190W) and most of the models I've seen only have one. Between slot power (75W max) and PCIe 8-pin (150W max) there's 225W maximum available to the card. Personally I'd prefer having two connectors because I'd really like to see how far the card could go, but it shouldn't be necessary for daily driver type operation.

 

[renz496]

If NV had any sense, drop a 16GB 5060 with a little performance nudge, while keeping power requirements low, at the $250 price point and so long as it wipes the floor with 4060, it will wipe out Intel and AMD market share.

But as we know with NV, they will just hike the prices and try and milk the customer.

If nvidia wipe out intel and AMD then they will be in trouble. It is in nvidia best interest for them to continue "milking" the customer and piss them of. That way they will buy intel or AMD.

 

[usertests]

I dont see the point of B570 at 220 USD. Makes more sense at 200 USD. Everyone is going to stretch and get the B580.

Hope the driver updates boosts the performance to more than 10% greater than 4060. With AMD's RDNA4 launch, Intel's win would be short lived, like 2 or 3 months max. And 2 more months, you will have the 5060.

The price on the B570 will fall eventually. Same strategy as AMD: don't price too low at launch, let it drop unofficially later.

Hopefully the Intel fine wine (aged in the toilet) brings the performance up to its marketing claims at all.

So gen on gen (A580- $179) this delivers roughly 40-45% more performance for exactly 40% more money, and adds an extra 4gb of vram? Do i get it right? 😬

They might not have made money on the A580 at that price (or most of the Arc cards at any price points). And it was launched extremely late, a whole year after the A750/A770. How many A580s were even made?

For this one they are banking on their marketing convincing buyers it's a good deal compared to a 4060 or 7600. We'll see if the claims hold up on review day.

This card looks like the new Polaris.

RDNA4 will be the new Polaris. Battlemage is the last gasp. I would check out a B380/B310 for SFF though.