When Intel announced its first Arc video card two years ago, I was more than a little skeptical. Can a company that famously abandoned its last large-scale desktop GPU project in 2009 actually break into a market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD? Now, when reviewed in 2022, the Arc A750 and A770 are not as good as you might think. The results were better than expected, but they were also held back by Intel’s poor drivers. But Intel seems to have learned from its mistakes.
The new $250 Arc B580 outperforms AMD’s lower-end Radeon 7600 and may even compete a bit with NVIDIA when it comes to budget ray tracing. The only question is whether Intel video cards are worth investing in given the volatile outlook for the company. But for a cheap video card like this, priced like it was in the early 2000s, it might be worth the risk.
intel
Intel’s Arc B580 is a rare commodity. The $250 GPU delivers solid 1080p and 1440p gaming, even with some ray tracing.
Pros Faster than Radeon 7600 and RTX 4060 Cool, quiet performance that works well
The B580 marks the debut of Intel’s second-generation Arc Xe2 GPU, and will be joined by the $219 B570 next month. Just look at the specs and it’s easy to see why it’s attractive for low-cost gaming. The B580 features 20 Xe cores, 20 ray tracing units, and faster clock speeds than previous Arc cards. But most importantly, it has 12GB of VRAM with a 192-bit memory interface, giving you plenty of room for 1440p gameplay.
By comparison, the $299 NVIDIA RTX 4060 is locked into 8GB of VRAM and a much more limited 128-bit interface. Even the RTX 4060 Ti has that tiny amount of VRAM, and both GPUs are primarily limited to 1080p gameplay (especially if you want a little bit of ray tracing). AMD’s Radeon RX 7600 (priced at about $269) also suffers from 8GB of RAM and lower ray-tracing performance compared to cards from NVIDIA and Intel.
Intel has a clear hardware advantage, but timing is once again a major concern. The Arc B580 was launched in preparation for CES 2025, where both NVIDIA and AMD are expected to show off new desktop GPUs. Given NVIDIA’s ever-increasing prices, I doubt the RTX 5060 will be around $250, but AMD is a different story. The company has been trying to influence the low-range and mid-range GPU market for years, and that’s reportedly still the case with the RDNA 4 card. There’s a good chance we’ll eventually see some kind of cheaper next-gen GPU from AMD.
intel
However, if you need to build a budget gaming console in the coming months, the Arc B580 will come in handy. In my testing, it scored slightly higher than the RTX 4060 Ti on 3DMark’s Timespy Extreme benchmark, and was noticeably faster than the Radeon 7600. The B580 shines even brighter with ray tracing. In the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark run at 1080p with ultra graphics settings and midrange ray tracing, we achieved an average of 58 fps. The Radeon 7600, on the other hand, sometimes struggled to maintain above 40 fps even with similar settings.
GPU
time spy extreme
3D mark speedway
Port Royal Ray Trace
Intel Arc B580
7,287
2,443
7,872
Intel Arc A770
6,718
Not applicable
6,960
NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti
6,599
3,217
8,170
AMD Radeon 7600
5,526
1,969
5,478
I was really surprised at how well the Arc B580 tackled 1440p gaming. Dragon Age: The Veilguard reached an average of 70 fps with high graphics settings, mid-range ray tracing, and Intel’s XeSS upscaling turned on. That’s better performance than you’ll see on the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro (although, admittedly, Sony’s PSSR AI upscaling may look better to your eyes). I also reached an average of 85 fps when playing Halo Infinite at 1440p with graphics maximized. This was slightly better than the 4060 Ti. We’re used to budget cards being limited primarily to 1080p gaming, but the Arc B580’s extra memory is clearly better suited for 1440p.
Photo credit: Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Still, there are benefits to competition. NVIDIA’s RTX GPUs can also work with dedicated apps like NVIDIA Broadcaster, which can clean up audio and video for streaming and recording. Additionally, NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 upscaling is available for over 500 games, while Intel’s XeSS just surpassed 200. And there are also driver issues. NVIDIA has decades of experience creating robust GPU software, while Intel has yet to recover from its recent driver failures. At the very least, XeSS 2 AI upscaling appears to be more useful than AMD’s FSR 3 (FidelityFX Super Resolution). Intel’s technology appears to be dramatically better, often increasing game performance by 30% or more.
The Arc B580 withstood several hours of benchmarking and gaming without any hardware or driver issues. When I first tested the Arc A750 and A770, they often crashed within an hour of testing. Intel’s software has clearly made some progress. The B580 reference model I tested also stayed relatively cool under load, never exceeding 64 degrees Celsius (which also saved the two large fans from making a lot of noise). . Third-party cards are available, but I was also impressed with Intel’s reference design. The B580 feels premium and sturdy, not cheap and plastic like many other budget GPUs.
Photo credit: Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
At the moment, Intel already seems to be having trouble keeping the Arc B580 in stock, which is a rare and good problem for the beleaguered chip giant. It’s easy to see why gamers are hooked. Delivers solid 1080p and 1440p performance on most new titles, even with some ray tracing. Finally, there’s a viable $250 GPU that doesn’t feel overwhelmingly behind. Intel’s victory is clear, at least until we see AMD’s new features.
