By The graphics card we have been pleading for since the outbreak is Intel’s $249 Arc B580. I chose that headline for our first report on Intel’s second-generation discrete graphics cards because, on paper at least, it is accurate. Since the epidemic, AMD and Nvidia have been nerfing the memory system of graphics cards that cost less than $350, limiting their optimal utilization to 1080p resolution. In the meantime, 1440p monitors—a very noticeable and reasonably priced upgrade—are becoming increasingly popular among gamers. With 12GB of VRAM to support 1440p gaming, Intel’s Arc B580 is priced at $249, less than its competitors’ entry-level 1080p models.
After a week of testing and gaming, I can confidently say that the $249 Intel Arc B580 is the graphics card we have been begging for since the epidemic. Although it is not flawless—performance lags behind the competition in a few high-profile games, and we were hoping for somewhat better overall results—this graphics card generally outperforms the AMD 300 Radeon RX 7600 and Nvidia RTX 4060, with the gap widening at 1440p.
For someone who wants to play contemporary PC games without jeopardizing their future, this graphics card is fantastic. For a Photoshop-by-Photoshop, game-by-game breakdown of our testing, see the video above. The same benchmarks will be shown below, with an emphasis on the five essential factors that gamers should consider before purchasing the Intel Arc B580. See our first coverage of the Arc B580 announcement for more detailed technical details on the inside workings of Intel’s new Xe 2-powered GPU.
The Arc B580 was designed with 1440p gaming in mind.
Let me briefly discuss the Arc B580’s unique selling point before moving on to benchmarks: In a time when 1440p graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD usually cost $400 or more, and when you spend less than that, you are usually limited to 1080p gaming, this is a 1440p graphics card for $250. For budget-conscious PC gamers, the Intel Arc B580 is a welcome change in an otherwise harsh decade. Conversely, Intel built this GPU to effortlessly manage 1440p high-resolution gaming. The Arc B580 has a large 192-bit bus that feeds a generous 12GB of GDDR6 memory. When turning on Intel’s XeSS upscaling technology or ray tracing, the improved memory system also helps.
In addition to their meager 128-bit memory buffers that further limit their ability to play games at 1440p, the $300 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and the AMD 270 Radeon RX 7600 both have 8GB memory buffers that limit performance even at 1080p. To make matters worse, enabling features like frame creation or ray tracing uses more memory at any resolution. Although these were built to operate at 1080p, you can play select games on them at 1440p without any problems. Conversely, Intel built this GPU to effortlessly manage 1440p high-resolution gaming.
The Arc B580 has a large 192-bit bus that feeds a generous 12GB of GDDR6 memory. When turning on Intel’s XeSS upscaling technology or ray tracing, the improved memory system also helps. The benchmarks below demonstrate how Intel’s improved memory setup can significantly impact performance in some games. Examine the minimum frame durations as well as the average frame rates while perusing the slides below, paying particular attention to 1440p. A game will have to use your considerably slower system memory if its VRAM runs out, which may cause stutters as frame rates in impacted scenes decrease. Below are the minimums that reflect that.
How are the drivers doing?
As could be expected from a new player in the PC gaming market, Intel’s first Arc A-series graphics cards had issues and low performance at first. Since their launch in late 2022, Intel has delivered significant driver upgrades at a rapid rate, improving the performance of DirectX 9 and DX11, which had been slow at first, and turning the entire Arc experience from a bug-filled roller coaster to a generally stable and pleasant cruise. However, how do the Arc B580 drivers of the future fare? Very, very well. Our test session yielded no noteworthy problems.
Compared to the Arc A-series, where I began my review with a comprehensive list of the show-stopping problems I had found, this is a significant improvement. Intel’s software engineers deserve praise for their tremendous efforts in this area. Although none of these issues took away from our overall enjoyment of the card, the experience was not entirely flawless. Adam Patrick Murray, the tester and brain of YouTube, encountered no issues other than those small glitches. This includes the new, settings-heavy Intel Graphics Software, which takes the place of the Arc Control Panel from the previous iteration.
Ray tracing rocks on Intel’s Arc B580
Intel’s second-generation ray tracing hardware is fantastic; it outperformed the original Arc cards in key technical areas by 1.5 to 2 times. First-generation Arc already excelled at ray tracing, and the Xe 2 architecture’s improvements put Intel’s GPU well ahead of Nvidia’s renowned ray tracing in Cyberpunk and Returnal. With ray tracing set to High in Watch Dogs Legion, things became closer, but the RAM configuration of the B580 allowed it to gain a 7.5 percent advantage at 1440p resolution. Ray tracing is already an Intel strength, but AMD has been having trouble bringing it up to standard on its Radeon graphics cards.
Is the Intel Arc B580 a good purchase?
I strongly advise taking a close look at Intel’s new GPU if you are searching for a reliable all-around (new) graphics card for less than $350.Intel’s Arc B580 is a great option if you want to play games without going over budget. Unlike its competitors, it can handle 1440p gaming in style, and its 12GB of RAM means that you will not have to lower the graphics settings in cutting-edge games to 1080p, something that the 8GB GeForce RTX 4060 and Radeon 7600 can not accomplish. It can run even quicker in games that support XeSS, uses a regular 8-pin power connector, and—shocker!—is a manageable size in a time when GPUs frequently have Godzilla-like proportions. Most significantly, the widespread flaws and performance problems that beset the first-generation Arc GPUs have been eliminated.
Since few gamers will utilize Nvidia’s acclaimed DLSS and content creation functions on an entry-level graphics card, choosing the Arc B580 means giving up such features. I think such sacrifices are more than made up for by the 1440p gaming capabilities and 12GB of VRAM. In my opinion, Intel would still have the upper hand because of its memory advantage, even if Nvidia and AMD reduced their costs to match the B580. That is until those competitors release their new mainstream next-generation GPUs later in the year.
As I mentioned in the introduction, Intel’s $249 Arc B580 is the graphics card we have been pleading for since the outbreak, even though I hoped it would be a little quicker overall than the RTX 4060. This decade has not seen a $250 graphics card this attractive; to find a low-cost GPU with such a compelling value proposition, you would have to go back to the heyday of the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 480.
