Intel has officially unveiled the Arc B-Series GPU or the ‘Battlemage’ series as we know and same as last-gen, Team Blue is gunning for the budget-conscious and value-focused PC users, first with the Arc B580 and Arc B570.
Following the positive reception of the Core Ultra 200S lineup for the CPU department, the Battlemage GPUs could be their most anticipated product since they have teased the public about it for quite a while. They boast notable upgrades, including enhanced ray tracing and AI upscaling via XeSS 2, offering a compelling 1080p and 1440p gaming experience at prices under $300. Powered by the Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) engine, XeSS 2 introduces features like low-latency mode and frame generation, setting the stage for a smoother gaming experience.
Built on the Xe2 architecture, the GPUs also benefit from improved rasterization performance with reduced overhead. As a modern product released in 2024, they support modern AI workloads, including inferencing – though it’s yet to be seen if Intel GPUs will find favor with AI enthusiasts for model training tasks.
Benchmark results reveal that the Arc B580 outperforms the previous-gen A750 by approximately 24% at 1440p, making its $249 price tag especially appealing compared to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4060, which many criticized for its high price and underwhelming performance. Meanwhile, the Arc B570 starts at $219. In terms of VRAM, the B580 offers 12GB of GDDR6, while the B570 includes 10GB—both sufficient for current games at 1080p and even 1440p with adjusted settings.
Additionally, the GPUs require just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, with most AIB designs and Intel’s reference cards equipped with dual-fan cooling systems. Brands like Acer, ASRock, Maxsun, Sparkle, Onix, Gunnir, and others are already lining up to offer their own versions.
As with any product launch, the real test will come when the cards land in the hands of gamers and reviewers. Only then will we see if Intel’s performance promises hold up.
