Intel has certainly faced its share of challenges in the processor arena over the past year, but when it comes to their graphics cards, it’s a whole different story. Announcing their second-generation “Battlemage” desktop GPUs on December 4, 2024, Intel has been riding a wave of mostly positive news ever since.
The Arc B580 hit the scene on December 13, priced at an accessible $249. In a market where NVIDIA’s expensive GPUs reign supreme, Intel’s Battlemage offering quickly disappeared from the shelves, earning high marks from tech enthusiasts across the board. Reviewers couldn’t heap enough praise on it, with Tom’s Hardware even awarding it a flawless 5-star rating, describing it as “A spectacular success for Intel and a gateway to 1440p for gamers on a budget.”
While there have been a few rumblings about how the Arc B580 performs when it’s paired with older CPUs—a topic I’ll explore more thoroughly later—the consensus remains optimistic. The B580 serves up a wallet-friendly alternative for gamers aiming to enjoy 1440p experiences. Packing 12GB of VRAM, this card seems more future-ready compared to the NVIDIA RTX 4060, which carries only 8GB.
As we look ahead to the Arc B570, which is slated for release on January 16 at an even lower price of $219, there’s some curiosity about whether the B580 was a one-hit wonder. Limited performance leaks are hinting that Intel might have another sensation on their hands.
First reported by Wccftech, leaks have trickled in from Geekbench regarding the soon-to-arrive Arc B570 GPU. This comes courtesy of X (formerly Twitter) user @GawroskiT, who stumbled upon a Geekbench entry on January 12.
As expected, the Arc B570’s performance trails the Arc B580 by about 10%, which makes sense given the B570’s role as a more budget-friendly option while still capable of delivering 1440p experiences. With a price point approximately 12.8% less than the B580, it’s a case of “you get what you pay for.”
A closer look at the Geekbench results offers more details. The testing was performed using an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU, an MSI MEG Z890 ACE motherboard, and 48GB of DDR5 RAM. Geekbench data lists the Arc B570 featuring 144 compute units, reaching a maximum frequency of 2,750MHz, and equipped with 9.64GB of VRAM.
These figures match Intel’s own information on the B570 product page, although the 2,750MHz boost frequency is a new tidbit, as Intel previously only detailed a 2,500MHz base frequency.
These Geekbench disclosures provide just a glimpse of what we can expect from the B570, reaffirming that Battlemage’s performance can vary significantly depending on the paired CPU.
Speaking of CPU pairings, Intel’s Battlemage series didn’t completely escape criticism, specifically concerning performance issues observed with older CPUs. Initial optimism for the B580 took a knock when it became apparent that, although the GPU performs as expected with modern CPUs, it doesn’t fare as well with older processors.
Hardware Unboxed delved into this conundrum with an insightful video. Initially, it was thought that the problem revolved around CPUs lacking Resizable BAR support, a technology introduced with Intel’s 10th Gen and AMD’s Zen 3 desktop processors.
Yet, as Hardware Unboxed revealed through tests involving older CPUs like the Ryzen 5 2600, which can have Resizable BAR manually enabled, the drop in performance wasn’t solely attributable to the absence of this tech.
The takeaway from the Hardware Unboxed video is somewhat nebulous. There’s no clear answer as to why the GPU underperforms with older CPUs. It’s evident that an overhead issue exists, but pinpointing a solution remains elusive.
In a follow-up, Hardware Unboxed reassessed the Arc B580 with both the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 5 5600, finding that the cost per frame slightly increased from around $4.38 to $4.80 when paired with the older CPU. Even so, the Arc B580 continues to be one of the top picks for budget-conscious gamers. Typically, I’d advise checking available stock at retailers, but right now, the only offers available are from scalpers looking to capitalize with exorbitant prices.
