Intel Challenges GPU Market with New Arc B580 and B570 Graphics Cards

I've never taken Intel's GPU competition seriously, but the Arc B580 has left me no choice - it just surpassed the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 in Vulkan benchmarks

It's easy to place AMD and Nvidia as leaders within the GPU market, with the latter's RTX 4000 series currently dominating over the RX 7000 series - but Intel is about to shake things up, with the Arc B580 defeating both the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 GPUs in Vulkan benchmark tests. According to Tom's Hardware (based on public benchmark tests), the Intel Arc B580 loses out to Nvidia's RTX 4060 in OpenCL API (which is irrelevant for gaming) but successfully defeats Team Green's GPU with a 6% lead in Vulkan (one of the APIs used for most games). The Battlemage GPU is priced at $249 / £249 / around AU$439 which is cheaper than the RTX 4060 at MSRP ($299 / £289 / AU$545), and it's purported to be the faster GPU (especially equipped with 12GB of VRAM). If there's anything to take from this, it's that Intel is suddenly in pole position to reignite the budget GPU market and take the lead - though doing so will depend on AMD and Nvidia's CES 2025 reveals. Team Red has already made it clear that its focus has shifted from high-end GPUs to mid-range options, with a strong emphasis on AI upscaling going forward with FSR 4 (much like Nvidia's continuing focus on AI for DLSS 3's successor). With this in mind, I'm optimistic about what both have to offer at CES in January when it comes to budget options. The Intel Arc B580 will feature 12GB of VRAM, while the cheaper B570 will utilize 10GB of VRAM - 8GB of VRAM is nowhere near enough to tackle games today, and it's great to see that Intel abandoning this long-standing staple of affordable GPUs. More and more triple-A titles are demanding more VRAM for consistent performance and after Apple's move away from 8GB of unified memory (shared RAM between the CPU and GPU) for Macs, I'm expecting Nvidia and AMD to follow suit. Spotted by VideoCardz, XeSS Frame Generation has been leaked and is now available for Intel GPU owners to use via Nexus Mods - AI upscaling has been the talk of the town for PC gaming for improved frame rates and image quality, and now that Team Blue has joined the party, there is room for competition in the budget GPUs arena.

Intel unveils its budget Battlemage Arc GPUs with XeSS2 AI features

Intel's second-generation Xe2 Arc GPUs are real, and once again, they could be compelling options for gamers looking for capable video cards under $250. Confirming leaks from the past week, Intel today unveiled the $249 Arc B580 and the slightly less capable $219 B570, both of which target 1,440p gaming. They feature the company's new XeSS2 AI capabilities (which are also coming to the older Arc cards), including Super Resolution upscaling (like the original XeSS), frame generation and low latency modes. The goal, according to Intel, is to deliver more performance per dollar compared to NVIDIA's $299 RTX 4060 and AMD's Radeon 7600. It's a noble pitch, but one that's also a repeat of what Intel attempted with its previous Arc GPUs. We liked those cards well enough, and the company was diligent about rolling out driver updates, yet that hasn't stopped its overall GPU market share from falling to zero percent. I'd wager many gamers didn't want to take a chance on Intel's hardware and software when NVIDIA and AMD's offerings were battle tested and just a bit more expensive. The power bump from the Xe2 cards might change the situation for Intel, though. The company claims the B580 is on average 24 percent faster than its previous A750 Limited Edition GPU in 1,440p with ultra graphics settings, and it also has a 10 percent lead on NVIDIA's RTX 4060. (Intel's benchmarks show the B580 performing 43 percent faster than the RTX 4060 in Cyberpunk 2077, but at the same time it's nearly 20 percent slower while playing RoboCop: Rogue City.) Spec-wise, Intel's new GPUs should keep up with the demands of 1,440p-focused gamers. The B580 features 20 Xe cores, 20 ray tracing units, 12GB of VRAM and a 2,670 MHz clock speed. The B570 comes in with a bit less all around: 18 Xe cores, 10GB of RAM and a 2,500MHz clock speed. I'd wager most people would be better off spending the extra $30 for a bit more future proofing, but 1080p gamers might not see the need for much extra power. In a briefing with media, Intel Fellow Tom Petersen explained that the company learned a lot from its previous GPUs (which also marked the first time Intel seriously worked on discrete graphics since 2010). "With XE2, we have a new hardware platform, and that allows us to deliver higher utilization, improved work distribution, and less software overhead," he said. "So at the end of the day, it's all about getting software efficiency up so that we can deliver the benefits of the hardware we're building." At the very least, Intel's new XeSS AI features are competitive with NVIDIA's DLSS3. The B580 GPU can double the performance of Diablo IV when using XeSS, according to Intel, and the new frame generation feature should be able to push your fps count even higher. Just like NVIDIA's tech, it's not just upscaling graphics from a lower resolution, it's also interpolating entirely new frames. The company's XeSS2 low latency, or XeLL, also improves responsiveness by 45 percent. Intel claims the B580 trounces the RTX 4060 in AI LLM performance, achieving around 20 more tokens per second in Llama 2 and Llama 3.1 workloads. While it would be interesting to see if Intel can ever scale its Arc GPUs beyond the mid-range (the previous Arc 770 was a solid RTX 3070 Ti competitor), I'm honestly more intrigued by how the company is innovating in the low-end. Thanks to the rising complexity of high-end GPUs, the idea of cheap and capable video cards has practically disappeared over the last decade. Intel could win over a loyal fanbase of budget gamers if it actually sticks with its GPU efforts. If you're intrigued by these new GPUs, you won't have to wait long to get your hands on them. Arc B580 cards will be available on December 13 for $249, while Arc B570 models will arrive next month on January 16 for $219. Intel will be making its own Limited Edition version of the Arc B580 (above), but it's leaving the B570 cards up to its partners, including Acer, ASRock and Sparkle.

Intel's Arc B580 and B570 Battlemage GPUs could be the new kings of 1440p gaming

Intel's nightmares come true: its new chip is unstable and two companies reportedly want to take over Key Takeaways Intel has launched B-series gaming GPUs targeting 1440p gaming with high performance and affordability. Intel's Xe2 architecture powers the GPUs, delivering better efficiency and enhanced software support. Intel has priced the Arc B580 at $249 and the B570 at $219, offering more VRAM and performance than competitors. ✕ Remove Ads Intel has announced the company's all-new B-series gaming graphics cards. Replacing the previous-gen A-series, which included the excellent mid-range Arc A770, these new GPUs will be made available for desktop discrete cards, laptops, and gaming handhelds. Pushing Xe Super Sampling 2 (XeSS2), XMX AI acceleration, and solid performance, Intel is positioning the B-series as "best-in-class performance per Dollar". At launch, the more budget-friendly Intel Arc B580 and B570 will be available, offering 1440p ultra gaming experiences with ray tracing support and advanced frame generation. Targeting 1440p with the new Intel Arc GPUs Close ✕ Remove Ads Contrary to what display makers would lead us to believe, 1440p is the fastest-growing resolution and is often considered the sweet spot for gaming. Intel agrees as both B-series GPUs announced today are tailored to this resolution. Powering these new GPUs is the Intel Xe2 architecture. First-gen Xe was the first time Intel scaled the engine and since it was an early platform, the company had to build out the software stack. With Xe2, there's higher efficiency thanks to better utilization, improved work distribution, and less software overhead. Let's talk about drive support, which Nvidia and AMD have nailed over the generations. Intel isn't too far behind as the company delivered more than 50 drivers since the Intel Arc A-series launched, supporting more than 120 new games at day 0, more than doubling the overall game coverage by Intel's GPU drivers. This led to a completely different experience using an Intel Arc GPU today than a few years ago. Xe2 has been developed to reduce latency, eliminate stalls, and improve the handshake between software and hardware. ✕ Remove Ads Close Looking at what makes Xe2 tick, the render slice consists of native SIMD16 ALUs with 4-deep XMX. Inside the second-gen Xe core are 8 512-bit vector engines, 8 2048-bit XMX engines, 64b atomic ops support, and 256KB shared cache. According to released marketing slides, Intel has achieved significant performance per core improvements over previous GPUs. The ray tracing unit alone has three traversal pipelines, 18 box intersections, and two triangle intersections. All this should result in considerably better ray tracing performance in more demanding games. ✕ Remove Ads Then there's three times vertex fetch throughput and mesh shading performance, more caching, and other improvements, resulting in quite the advancement. Compared to Intel's older GPUs, we're looking at an improvement of 70% in performance per core and 50% in performance per watt. Intel's XeSS Frame Generation (XeSS-FG) and XeSS Super Resolution (XeSS-SR) will also make the launch. Finally, we've got Xe Low Latency (XeLL) for reducing gaming latency. Think of these as Intel's DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Reflex. Bring everything together and you could have a winning formula for 1440p gaming on a budget. How much will Intel's new Battlemage GPUs cost? Intel is launching two GPUs, the Arc B580 and Arc B570. No word yet on the 700-series but I can't imagine Intel would leave additional performance on the table when these 500-series cards already offer 1440p experiences. The Intel Arc B580 will cost $249 and launch on December 13, 2024. The more affordable Intel Arc B570 will follow on January 16, 2025, for just $219. Intel Arc B580 Intel Arc B570 Xe cores 20 18 Render slices 5 5 RT units 20 18 XMX AI engines 160 144 Clock speeds 2,670 MHz 2,500 MHz RAM 12 GB GDDR6 10 GB GDDR6 Bandwidth 456 GB/s 380 GB/s TOPs 233 203 TDP 190 W 150 W Price $249 $219 ✕ Remove Ads Compared to the competition, Intel is offering more VRAM and performance than the likes of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600. Things certainly look like they could be heating up and this could be the win that Intel so desperately requires after the disastrous launch of the Core Ultra 200 series. We'll put both of these GPUs to the test, so remain tuned for our reviews!

Intel Debuts New Mid-Range Battlemage GPUs Starting at $250

Intel’s Arc Battlemage lineup includes the B580 and B570 with up to 12 GB of memory for budget-conscious gamers. Intel’s all-new Battlemage GPU lineup, including the budget-end Arc B580 and B570 graphics cards, is supposed to compete with other lower-mid-range GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. It’s also supposed to be close to 24% faster than the previous-gen A750 GPUs. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Intel cards is their memory, with 12 GB of memory on the top end compared to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060’s 8 GB. Otherwise, the company says the B580 will have 20 Xe2-cores (with similar graphics architecture to Intel’s Lunar Lake CPUs), five render slices, 20 ray tracing units, and a 2.67 GHz clock speed. It has a memory bandwidth of 456 GB/s and a 190W power draw. It uses the older PCIe 4.0 x8 connection, so any older-model PC owner won’t have to worry about moving to PCIe 5.0. The “Limited Edition†model presented by Intel also includes a single 8-pin power connection. Intel stacked its latest discrete cards against the 4060 and AMD RX 7600, which came out in spring 2023. However, Intel’s shining grace is its performance for its price. Intel says the Arc B580 starts at $250. For that price, Intel says you're better ray tracing performance compared to Team Red or Team Green’s mid-range offerings. Intel already has multiple OEMs on board to make its new Arc B-series, including ASRock, Gunnir, Maxsun, Onix, and Sparkle. Intel’s in-game benchmarks tell an interesting story. Team Blue says you’ll get a 10% boost for in-game performance compared to the 4060. That could mean an average difference of about 15 frames in a game like Control or putting a game like Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077 above 60 FPS, beating the popular 4060. That doesn’t mean it wins every time. Intel’s benchmarks show the Nvidia card still won out in games like Gears of War 5 and Counter-Strike 2. That was in a PC configuration with an Intel Core i9-14900K CPU. The A750 first launched for a little under $300, making the B850’s price point all that more enticing. That doesn’t mean it’s all gravy. We would have liked to see benchmarks comparing AMD’s offerings to Intels, but we will have to wait for reviews. The more-impressive B580 should be available starting Dec. 13, while the $220 B570 won’t be around until Jan. 16. The performance should be expanded with Intel’s AI upscaler XeSS 2, which now incorporates a super resolution rendering effect and frame generation. Like Nvidia’s DLSS Super Resolution, XeSS-SR essentially plays the game at a lower resolution, then upscales each frame to make it look like it displays at a higher resolution, boosting frame rates. Intel claimed super resolution can get you 70% better framerates on a game like Cyberpunk 2077 or around 38% better in Horizon Forbidden West. That’s all in XeSS’ Performance mode on a B580 at 1440p. XeSS is currently supported in a little more than 150 games. That’s more than the number of supported games from last year, but it's still potentially limited compared to the hundreds of games that specifically support AMD’s FSR 2 and FSR 3. Nvidia’s DLSS is integrated directly into both Unreal Engine and Unity, meaning it's one of the most widely supported upscalers in the industry currently. What Intel showed was very dependent upon XeSS. The benchmarks Intel claims it can provide for demanding games like Total War: Warhammer III and Ghost of Tsushima were squeaking up to 60 FPS but with XeSS in performance mode. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s also what we expect from the 4060, but we’d need hands-on with Battlemage in a modern machine before we can directly compare the new Arcs to its contemporaries. Intel is comparing Battlemage to GPUs that arrived over a year and a half ago. What’s also interesting about the benchmarks is that Intel isn’t comparing itself to last year’s $400 RTX 4060 Ti, which was Nvidia’s more recent, more power-efficient version of the same GPU. Based on leaks and rumors, Nvidia’s rumored 50-series GPUs seem more focused on the higher-end and ultimately be extremely expensive cards. We still haven’t seen anything official about the Blackwell GPUs, but rumored specs reported by Videocardz would put the 5060 and 5060 Ti’s release in March next year. We don’t know what kind of RAM it’s packing, but the 5070 is tipped to have 12 GB and a 192-bit memory bus compared to the 5080’s 16 GB. Memory isn’t everything, but it is a big factor in future-proofing. You can currently find the 4060 for prices inching toward $200, and that will grow more stark once Team Green releases the 5060. However, I don’t think you should ignore Intel here. The memory you get for the price is significant, and it could mean gains for anybody putting together a mid-range tower. I would have liked to see Intel show off a less capable CPU than the 14900K for the sake of budget builders. Still, with more competition, perhaps we’ll see another age when folk can build a gaming-capable PC that costs less than $600.

Intel's New Arc Graphics Cards: If at First You Don't Succeed...

Intel debuted its Xe2 graphics architecture in August as part of the Core Ultra 200V series -- Lunar Lake -- mobile CPUs. Now it's incorporating the architecture into a new generation of its Arc discrete desktop graphics, the B series, with hardware and software updates that might help it gain a little more traction than the A series did. The company's positioning the $249 B580 and $219 B570 as 1440p cards, with more than 8GB memory to be able to handle ray tracing, and relying on its XeSS 2 upscaling and optimization technology -- it adds frame generation (XeSS-FG), along the lines of Nvidia's DLSS 3 optical flow acceleration and AMD's Fluid Motion Frames -- for improved performance and a low-latency capability. There was a lot to like about the first generation of the Arc cards (I tested the A750), but it takes a lot of rolling the rock uphill to dislodge Nvidia -- even AMD recently decided to give up competing on the high end. Intel claims better performance per dollar than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on average, but it also takes more than that to nudge people from their buying or recommending ruts. There will be a B580 Limited Edition, Intel's in-house reference design, along with B570 models from third-parties, notably Acer (in the Nitro line) and ASRock (the Steel Legend and Challenger lines) among a handful of others. The cards are designed for low-power-PSU systems, with rated board power requirements of under 200 watts. Like most competitors they fit into an eight-channel PCI 4 slot and use a single eight-pin power connector, which makes them options for upgrading fairly old systems or systems with low-capacity power supplies (like 500 or 600 watts). I'll know whether it's worth it after I test the card. Frame generation relies a lot on machine learning to interpolate between two synthetically generated frames; there are two separate AI frameworks, one which calculates pixel-to-pixel changes (sequential static frames) and one for vector-to-vector changes (sequential motion trajectories). It then calculates the proper way to blend the two. So to perform FG, it requires the upgraded XMX data types that launched with Lunar Lake; that means it's not available for the older cards or Core Ultra 100 series integrated GPUs. They do use the same upscaling algorithms, though. Along with XeSS-FG, the cards get Xe Low Latency, a click-to-display operation flow that syncs input devices with when the GPU needs the input to render to the screen instead of the more hurry-up-and-wait operation flow, which can introduce lag. There's a new driver-based low-latency mode as well. The updated Intel Graphics control panel adds several features that Arc owners have requested: more granular overclocking built into the app with a better interface, scaling methods and mode controls on a per-display basis and FPS in the performance metrics. Intel has also updated its AI Playground software for the Arc GPUs, which aggregates various models -- Stable Diffusion for image generation and others for chat, upscaling, stylizing and so on -- to version 2.0.

Intel partners with Acer once again for the new generation of Arc GPUs but it's not just gamers they have their eye on

Acer is once again linking arms with Intel for their new Nitro Arc B-Series graphics cards. Two cards have been announced so far: the Nitro Intel Arc B570 OC 10 GB and Nitro Intel Arc B580 OC 12 GB. The target audience for these cards isn't just PC tinkerers looking for a mid-range upgrade, but also content creators who need their resource-hungry video editing suite to quickly chew through rendering their latest round of reels. According to a news post from Acer, the cards in question will feature, "Xe2 architecture with up to 20 cores, clock speeds of up to 2,740 MHz, plus Acer's advanced FrostBlade thermal system for optimal cooling." While these cards are said to offer high framerates at a still very respectable 1440p, Acer also claims "stunning 8K visuals." Which, ah...okay, sure, gaming at 8K is probably possible, but maybe not the most pleasant experience for anything more demanding than another cheeky run of Balatro. Oh, and as is so en vogue these days, Acer is also keen to highlight that these GPUs are all in on AI. For instance, both cards are "equipped with specialized AI engines to execute cutting-edge AI workloads," specifically the "XMX AI engines in each Xe-core." Acer was one of a handful of business partners Intel worked with to produce their first generation of Arc GPUs, so teaming up again was to be expected. It's no surprise either that, while waxing lyrical about how deftly these new cards will integrate AI into a content creation workflow, Acer shouts out Intel's AI Playground app. Touted as a one-stop shop for "image creation, editing, and AI-powered answers at the fingertips of anyone with an Intel Arc GPU," I'm sure Playground will be a boon to any creator who doesn't mind that their content looks much like everyone else's. Alright, I'm done -- let me reel my neck back into its AI-sceptical hovel. Yesterday, Jeremy covered Intel's own take on these same cards, breaking down their tech specs and offering the following takeaway: to paraphrase, though the architecture for Intel's own Arc B580 and its B570 cards is sound, performance-wise they're still only glancing off Nvidia's RTX 4060. That said, Intel's cards are also cheaper, with the B580 costing a not insignificant $50 less than the RTX 4060. That said, these cards from Intel are limited edition, so you're much more likely to see Acer's renditions of these GPUs on shelves anyway. In many respects, it's not been Intel's year. The Arrow Lake launch was off target, not quite making the splash the company had hoped, and more recently CEO Pat Gelsinger stepped down in favour of retirement. To recap, Gelsinger first joined Intel in 1979 and stayed with the company for decades before departing in 2009. He only returned to Intel to take up the hefty mantle of CEO back in early 2021 but, if TechCrunch's report about Gelsinger's severance package is to be believed, it was definitely a worthwhile stretch.

Intel Announces Next-Gen B580 and B570 Graphic Cards for Budget-Friendly PC Gaming - IGN

The Intel Arc B580 and B570 aim for 1080p gaming with some light ray tracing for good measure. Intel has finally announced the Intel Arc B580 and B570 next-generation graphics cards. Built on its 'Battlemage' architecture, they are both budget-friendly GPUs aimed at making PC gaming just a bit more accessible. The Intel Arc B580 and B570 follow in the footsteps of the A770 and A750, which were both aimed at 1080p gaming, with some light ray tracing thrown in for good measure. With these next-generation cards, Intel has introduced a new architecture, along with new XMX AI cores that should make the next iteration of XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) much more competitive with Nvidia's DLSS and Sony's PSSR. The Intel Arc B580 features 20 Xe-Cores across 5 compute units, or as Intel calls them 'Render Slices'. Each Xe-Core features 8 Vector Engines, Intel's shader core, and 8 XMX AI cores. That means the Arc B580 has both 160 shader cores, and 160 AI accelerators. This is coupled with 12GB of GDDR6 memory, which is high for a $249 GPU. As for the Arc B570, it has 18 Xe-Cores, for a total of 144 Vector Engines and AI accelerators. That's paired with 10GB of VRAM, which is still more than the 8GB offered by the $299 Nvidia RTX 4060. Intel is claiming these new graphics cards are significantly more powerful than their last-generation counterparts, with the B870 being up to 80% faster than the A750 in some games. With that greater performance, Intel is also targeting 1440p gamers, which demands a more powerful graphics card than a 1080p gaming monitor would. However, we won't know how these new graphics cards actually perform until I get them in the lab for in-depth testing, so stay tuned on that front. Both of these Battlemage graphics cards will be out soon, with the B580 launching on December 13 for $249, and the Arc B570 launching on January 16th, starting at $219.

Intel Launches B-Series GPUs With AI Engine and Ray Tracing Support

Both GPUs are equipped with Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) engines Intel Arc B-series graphics processing units (GPUs) was launched by the company on Tuesday. Codenamed Battlemage, the new GPUs target price points which are accessible to creators and gamers, enabling them to play popular titles in up to 1440p resolution at over 60 frames per second (fps), according to the US chipmaker. The B-series comprises two GPU models called Intel Arc B580 and Arc B570, with both of them supporting features such as XeSS 2 upscaling technology, frame generation, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Intel Arc B580 graphics card will be available from add-in board partners such as Acer, ASRock, GUNNIR, ONIX Technology, MAXSUN, and Sparkle starting December 13 from $249 (roughly Rs. 21,000). Meanwhile, the Intel Arc B570 GPU can be purchased from January 16 starting at $219 (roughly Rs. 19,000). Intel says its new Arc B-series GPUs deliver up to 70 percent better performance per Xe-core and up to 50 percent improved performance per watt compared to the previous generation. Both GPUs are built on Intel's latest Xe2 architecture using TSMC's N5 fabrication process. They support artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, leveraging the Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) engines. The company says XeSS 2 incorporates three key technologies: XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation, and Xe Low Latency. XeSS Super Resolution provides AI-powered upscaling with support for over 150 games. Meanwhile, the XeSS Frame Generation leverages AI to add interpolated frames with the help of optical flow and motion vector reprojection. On the other hand, the Xe Low Latency is integrated with the game engine to deliver faster input responses. Intel's Arc B580 GPU is equipped with 20 second-generation Xe cores and 20 ray tracing units. According to the company, it has a peak clock speed of 2,670MHz and is equipped with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a memory bandwidth of 456GB/s. It has a total board power (TBP) of 190W and a peak computational power of 233 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Meanwhile, the Intel Arc B570 gets 18 Xe cores and 18 ray tracing units. It comes with 10GB of DDR6 memory, a memory bandwidth of 380GB/s, and a peak clock speed of 2,500MHz. Its peak computational power is rated at 203 TOPS with a 150W TBP. Paired with the Intel Graphics Software, the B-series GPUs provide access to a range of display settings such as colour and scaling modes, and variable refresh rate (VRR) support.

Intel Rolls Out Its Lunar Lake-Generation Xe2 Graphics to Arc B-series Cards

Intel debuted its Xe2 graphics architecture in August as part of the Core Ultra 200V series -- Lunar Lake -- mobile CPUs. Now it's incorporating the architecture into a new generation of its Arc discrete desktop graphics, the B series, with hardware and software updates that might help it gain a little more traction than the A series did. The company's positioning the $249 B580 and $219 B570 as 1440p cards, with more than 8GB memory to be able to handle ray tracing, and relying on its XeSS 2 upscaling and optimization technology -- it adds frame generation (XeSS-FG), along the lines of Nvidia's DLSS 3 optical flow acceleration and AMD's Fluid Motion Frames -- for improved performance and a low-latency capability. There was a lot to like about the first generation of the Arc cards (I tested the A750), but it takes a lot of rolling the rock uphill to dislodge Nvidia -- even AMD recently decided to give up competing on the high end. Intel claims better performance per dollar than the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 on average, but it also takes more than that to nudge people from their buying or recommending ruts. There will be a B580 Limited Edition, Intel's in-house reference design, along with B570 models from third-parties, notably Acer (in the Nitro line) and ASRock (the Steel Legend and Challenger lines) among a handful of others. The cards are designed for low-power-PSU systems, with rated board power requirements of under 200 watts. Like most competitors they fit into an eight-channel PCI 4 slot and use a single eight-pin power connector, which makes them options for upgrading fairly old systems or systems with low-capacity power supplies (like 500 or 600 watts). I'll know whether it's worth it after I test the card. Frame generation relies a lot on machine learning to interpolate between two synthetically generated frames; there are two separate AI frameworks, one which calculates pixel-to-pixel changes (sequential static frames) and one for vector-to-vector changes (sequential motion trajectories). It then calculates the proper way to blend the two. So to perform FG, it requires the upgraded XMX data types that launched with Lunar Lake; that means it's not available for the older cards or Core Ultra 100 series integrated GPUs. They do use the same upscaling algorithms, though. Along with XeSS-FG, the cards get Xe Low Latency, a click-to-display operation flow that syncs input devices with when the GPU needs the input to render to the screen instead of the more hurry-up-and-wait operation flow, which can introduce lag. There's a new driver-based low-latency mode as well. The updated Intel Graphics control panel adds several features that Arc owners have requested: more granular overclocking built into the app with a better interface, scaling methods and mode controls on a per-display basis and FPS in the performance metrics. Intel has also updated its AI Playground software for the Arc GPUs, which aggregates various models -- Stable Diffusion for image generation and others for chat, upscaling, stylizing and so on -- to version 2.0.

Intel Arc B580 and B570 Battlemage GPUs with Xe2 architecture unveiled

Intel has announced the launch of its Arc B-Series graphics cards, code-named Battlemage, targeting mainstream gamers. The lineup features the debut of the BMG-G21 SoC, optimized for 1440p and 1080p gaming. The new Arc B580 and B570 GPUs focus on providing solid performance at competitive prices, delivering modern gaming features and AI acceleration powered by integrated Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) engines, the company said. The Xe2-based BMG-G21 SoC features five render slices, each with four Xe2 cores, totaling 20 Xe2 cores. Each core is equipped with eight 512-bit vector engines, eight 2048-bit XMX engines, and a 256KB L1$/SLM cache. The architecture includes dedicated ray tracing (RT) units and advanced support for geometry, rasterization, and pixel backends. According to Intel, the BMG-G21 achieves a 70% performance improvement per Xe-core and 50% better performance per watt compared to previous generations. The Arc B-Series introduces XeSS 2, which includes three key technologies: When combined, these technologies boost frame rates by up to 3.9x, providing smoother gameplay in demanding AAA titles. Both GPUs support DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1, and hardware acceleration for AV1, HEVC, AVC, and VP9 codecs. The Arc B580 offers up to 24% faster performance than the Arc A750, with some games seeing up to a 78% improvement. According to Intel, it is 10% faster on average than competitors like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and offers up to 32% better performance per dollar, along with superior rasterization and ray tracing capabilities. The B580 Limited Edition features a dual-slot, dual-fan cooling system, enhancing airflow and maintaining quiet operation. It also supports overclocking beyond 3 GHz for additional performance boosts. Intel's media engine supports multiple video codecs, including AV1 and HEVC, facilitating high-quality video creation and playback. The GPUs also support AI workloads through the AI Playground 2.0 tool, enabling tasks like text-to-image generation, photo editing, and custom chatbot creation. Speaking about the new GPUs, Vivian Lien, Intel Vice President and General Manager of Client Graphics, said,

Intel's (Possibly) Last GPUs Are Finally Here

I Finally Switched to Windows 11 and Already Miss These Windows 10 Features Intel is the most recent player in the GPU game, releasing its very first batch of budget GPUs in late 2022. Now, the second generation of dedicated cards is here, although it could very well be the last one. Intel's Arc B-series GPUs, codenamed Battlemage, have finally been unveiled by Intel. There are two cards belonging to this range at the moment, the B580 and B570, which Intel says are designed to provide a cost-effective option for gamers seeking high-performance 1440p gaming. The Battlemage range has been in the works for a long time and has suffered a few setbacks -- more on that later -- but given the larger landscape of budget GPUs at the moment, it's certainly good to see these finally launched. The cards feature second-generation Xe-cores with enhanced ray tracing capabilities and XMX AI engines that power the new XeSS 2 technology. XeSS 2, which competes with Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR, combines upscaling, frame generation, and low latency optimization to significantly boost performance, potentially increasing frame rates by up to 3.9x in demanding games. The B580 offers 12GB of dedicated memory, while the B570 has 10GB. Benchmarks show the B580 outperforming the previous generation A750 by an average of 24% at 1440p resolution. Intel also claims the B580 delivers up to 32% better performance-per-dollar than competitors. As always, these are numbers provided by the manufacturer which are meant to make the card look better, and we'll have to wait for real-life tests to see how it actually measures up to other options on the market. But if this is true, then it's a pretty decent bump over the previous generation. Unfortunately, there's a good chance that these will be the last dedicated GPUs Intel will release. At a recent earnings call, Intel's former CEO Pat Gelsinger (who, as a matter of fact, just stepped down yesterday) was noted for his non-committal to Intel's future in the dedicated GPU market. Whether we'll see third-gen GPUs remains an open question with no concrete answer -- maybe Intel's new leadership will change its mind. The cards will become available from various board partners including Acer and ASRock over the coming days, so you should keep an eye out for them. Source: Intel, The Verge, Acer, Engadget

Intel Announcement Preview: Intel ARC B580 and B570 (BMG-G21 SoC)

ARC 580 and 570 Announced Intel has announced the technical specifications for its forthcoming Arc B580 GPU as well as the B570, a downgraded version that will be released later in January. The Arc B580 will feature 20 Xe2 cores and 12GB of GDDR6 memory, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. The GPU is anticipated to operate at approximately 2.7GHz and will utilise an 8-pin PCIe power connector. By comparison, the Arc B570 has 18 Xe2 cores and runs at a GPU clock speed that is almost 200MHz slower than the B580. Both models are listed as overclocked versions, indicating that standard configurations may have lower clock speeds. The Arc B580 has a total board power (TBP) of 190W, while the B570 is rated at 150W TBP. Last month, rumours on the web reached an all-time high. There was speculation that Intel would release a new graphics architecture in December. This proved to be true, with the launch of the Xe2 Battlemage, also known as the BMG-G21 GPU. This is a SoC based on five render slices, which collectively comprise 20 Xe cores. Each of these cores contains a ray tracing unit. The card is to be introduced as the ARC B570 (18Xe cores) and ARC B580 (20 Xe cores) graphics cards. We would like to address some misconceptions about this product series. The product is powered by an 8-pin connector and runs PCIe Gen 4.0 on 8 lanes. The product series will compete at a GeForce RTX 4060 (Ti) performance equivalent and has approximately 19.6 billion transistors based on 5nm FinFET (N5) technology. The ARC B580 will be approximately 20-25% faster than the previous generation A750 LE card (but not the A770 LE). The Intel Xe2 render slice is of interest as it discloses a number of technical upgrades that have been implemented with the objective of enhancing processing efficiency and performance. A significant improvement is the enhanced bandwidth per core, which facilitates the accelerated transfer of data essential for intricate rendering operations. The latency has been reduced in order to eliminate delays in the processing pipeline, thereby ensuring more consistent and reliable performance. Furthermore, both the L1 and L2 caches have undergone an increase, thereby facilitating more expedient data access for the GPU. Furthermore, enhanced compression techniques have been introduced with the objective of optimising the utilisation of cache memory by reducing the quantity of data storage required. Have a peek: The Xe2 architecture has undergone enhancements with regard to ray tracing capabilities. The updated ray tracing units demonstrate better performance compared to those in previous Xe GPUs, particularly in traversal pipeline handling and triangle and box intersection calculations. The aforementioned upgrades permit more precise and efficient rendering of intricate graphical environments, which is crucial for applications that necessitate high visual fidelity. The structural modifications to the ray tracing units facilitate the rendering of more intricate graphical elements while maintaining the processing speed. In addition to the improvements made for gaming, Intel has updated its XMX engines in the Xe2 render slice to more effectively manage artificial intelligence workloads. The Vector Engine now supports int2 and tf32, which enhance the efficiency of machine learning computations. The faster XMX AI engines are also used to enhance the performance of Intel's XeSS super sampling technology, which uses AI to increase image resolution and quality. These updates reflect Intel's efforts to incorporate AI functionalities into their GPU architectures, thereby making them suitable for a broader range of computational tasks. Both the Arc B580 and B570 utilize the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and are outfitted with three DisplayPort 2.1 ports along with one HDMI 2.1 output. Additionally, each GPU incorporates two Advanced Media Engines designed to accelerate media processing tasks. These media engines support a range of popular formats, including AV1, enhancing the GPUs' capabilities in handling various media applications. The specifications position Intel's Battlemage series to compete within the mid-range segment of the graphics card market, targeting competitors such as Nvidia's RTX 4060 Ti and AMD's Radeon RX 7600. Intel XeSS: AI-Assisted Image Upscaling With New Features Intel previously introduced XeSS (Xe Supersampling) as part of its Arc series, positioning itself within the discrete mobile graphics market. XeSS is an AI-driven image upscaling technology developed to improve gaming performance by increasing frame rates. It utilizes artificial intelligence algorithms to enhance images, thereby reducing the computational demands on graphics processing units (GPUs) without the need for additional hardware upgrades. The graphics sector is currently seeing significant advancements from leading companies such as Nvidia and AMD, who are enhancing their image upscaling technologies, including Nvidia's Deep-Learning Supersampling and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution and Radeon Super Resolution. By utilizing AI-assisted training and complex algorithms, XeSS seeks to provide higher frame rates and better visual quality across a variety of compatible hardware and games. XeSS operates by initially rendering games at a lower resolution, which reduces the GPU's workload and allows for increased frame rates. The technology then upscales these lower-resolution images to higher resolutions using supersampling techniques, thereby ensuring visual quality that closely matches that of native-resolution rendering. This approach is similar to those used by Nvidia's Deep-Learning Supersampling and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution and Radeon Super Resolution technologies. Intel has introduced XeSS 2, a feature set comprising three principal components. The remaining three components are XeSS-SR (Super Resolution), XeSS-FG (Frame Generation), and XeLL (Low Latency). XeLL has been developed with the objective of reducing the delay between user inputs and their display on the screen, thereby enhancing system responsiveness. This technology is indispensable for the effective operation of XeSS-FG, ensuring that increased frame rates do not result in additional input lag. XeSS-FG represents Intel's frame generation technology within the XeSS 2 feature set. Its objective is to markedly enhance frame rates across a range of super-resolution settings, or even at native resolution. The technology employs advanced optical flow re-projection and motion-vector re-projection techniques to generate interpolated frames, effectively doubling the frame rate and ensuring the rendering of smoother motion. Optical flow re-projection entails the analysis of the movement of objects between existing frames, whereas motion-vector re-projection involves the prediction of movement vectors in order to generate new frames with greater accuracy. This approach renders XeSS-FG more analogous to NVIDIA's DLSS 3 Frame Generation than AMD's FSR 3 Frame Generation, as both utilise sophisticated algorithms and machine learning models for frame interpolation and generation. Xe-LL's objective is to reduce system latency, thereby enhancing the responsiveness of the gaming experience. This is achieved by stimulating game engines to de-prioritise game logic, thereby draining the CPU render queue. This allows the GPU to draw and display frames to the screen at a considerably faster rate. XeLL can operate independently, but is an integral component of XeSS-FG, which is designed to mitigate the increased latency that is inherent to introducing interpolated frames into any render queue. As the product launch of XeLL draws nearer, Intel intends to provide more detailed architectural information about XeLL and its integration with XeSS 2. The Arc B580's increased core count and higher memory capacity suggest a performance advantage over the Arc B570, making it suitable for more demanding graphics applications. The 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 192-bit bus in the B580 is expected to provide greater memory bandwidth, helping improve rendering and processing speeds. The higher GPU clock speed further supports enhanced computational performance. Despite these differences, both GPUs maintain similar interface and output configurations, ensuring compatibility with existing hardware and display technologies. The variance in total board power between the two models reflects their respective performance capabilities, with the B580 requiring more power to support its higher performance specifications. IntelArchitectureXe2 CoresGPU Clock SpeedMemoryMemory SpeedMemory Bus SizeMemory BandwidthPCIe InterfaceARC B570Xe2/Battlemage182.50 GHz10GB GDDR619 Gbps160-bit380 GB/sPCIe 4.0 x8ARC B580Xe2/Battlemage202.67 GHz12GB GDDR619 Gbps192-bit456 GB/sPCIe 4.0 X8 Available in December 13th'24 Intel has now formally announced the release timeline for the ARC B500 series. The new graphics cards will be officially announced today, 3 December. The market launch of the B580 12GB is scheduled for 13 December at a retail price of $249 (Intel reference model). The ARC B570 10 GB will be released on 16 January 2025 at a price of $219 USD.

ASRock Introduces New Intel Arc B-Series GPUs Featuring Xe2-HPG Architecture

The Intel Arc B-Series GPUs are based on the advanced Xe2-HPG architecture, optimized for high performance at 1440p and 1080p display resolutions. These GPUs feature technologies such as AI upscaling and ray tracing to improve visual quality and processing efficiency. A key feature is Intel Xe Super Sampling XeSS technology, which uses artificial intelligence to upscale graphics, increasing frame rates without reducing image quality. Additionally, Intel XeSS Frame Generation and Intel Xe Low Latency technologies work together to provide a smoother and more responsive gaming experience by improving frame rendering and reducing input delays. The GPUs also include Intel Xe Matrix Extensions XMX AI engines, which speed up AI-driven tasks in gaming, content creation, and media generation. The built-in Advanced Media Engine has two comprehensive media transcoders, allowing faster media exports in popular formats like AV1, which helps streamline content production workflows. ASRock has equipped its Intel Arc B-Series graphics cards with several proprietary features to enhance performance and user experience. The graphics cards use the Striped Ring Axial Fan system along with Ultra-fit Heatpipe technology to ensure effective cooling, keeping operating temperatures optimal even during heavy use. A Stylish Metal Backplate is included to strengthen the structure of the cards, providing durability and a premium look. Additionally, Polychrome SYNC technology enables users to customize ARGB LED lighting effects, allowing personalized aesthetic configurations within PC builds. These design elements contribute to reliable cooling, sturdy construction, and customizable lighting, making ASRock's Intel Arc B-Series graphics cards a suitable choice for gamers.