Intel Arc B580 review: a $249 Nvidia killer

Intel is back, baby. Well, it just delivered one of the best graphics cards you can buy, at least. Team Blue might be down on its luck overall recently, but its small discrete graphics business is morphing into a mighty force, and the Arc B580 is proof of that. Not only is it a budget GPU that undercuts the competition — in a lot of games, it’s just faster, too.

Carrying the helm of Intel’s Battlemage architecture, the B580 is a massive achievement for Intel’s young discrete graphics group. There are still some minor issues, particularly when it comes to oddly low performance in a few select titles. Overall, though, it’s extremely difficult to argue with what the Arc B580 offers; better performance and a lower price. In 2024, that’s exactly what the GPU market has been severely lacking.

Intel Arc B580 specs

If you looked at the Arc B580’s specs in a vacuum, you wouldn’t assume it’s a budget graphics card. It’s packing 12GB of memory, a 192-bit memory bus, clock speeds nearing 2.7GHz, and a rated power draw of 190 watts. It looks more like a lower midrange graphics card, something that is most comfortable at 1080p but can scale up to 1440p with some tweaks. And as will be come clear throughout this review, the specs already say a lot about the performance you can expect.

Frankly, this GPU has no business being $249. I’m not advocating for higher prices — I think this segment is woefully underserved by AMD and Nvidia — but I wouldn’t have batted an eye if Intel priced this card at $300. That’s the going price for the main competition in the form of the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 XT, and as you’ll see in my testing below, the B580 provides some clear performance advantages.

I’m interested to see where Intel goes with the Arc B570, however. We just have the B580 today, but the lower-end model is set to launch in a matter of weeks with largely similar specs — and a price of just $219. If that card is able to get even close to the performance of the B580, it’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the (largely ignored) segment of budget GPUs.

1080p performance

At $249, the Arc B580 is a 1080p graphics card. Intel may want to frame it as a 1440p graphics card, and for a lot of games, that resolution is fair game. Most gamers in this price bracket are probably packing a 1080p monitor, however. It makes sense that Intel angled the B580 toward a higher resolution. Although the B580 is impressive across resolutions, it’s the least impressive at 1080p. The performance is better at higher resolutions.

Across all games I tested, including titles with ray tracing, the B580 was a massive 44% better than the Arc A750 and 9% faster than the RTX 4060. That lines up with Intel’s claim of a 10% jump over Nvidia, and completely demolishes the gen-on-gen improvement Intel quoted. The devil is really in the details with the B580, however.

In some games, the B580 matches and sometimes even outmatches the $400 RTX 4060 Ti. You can see that in action in games like Cyberpunk 2077, Returnal, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. That’s insane considering this is a $250 graphics card. Performance isn’t like this in every game, but the fact that I have multiple examples of this level of performance is impressive alone. This is all fresh data, too — the benchmarks were run within days of each other.

What’s more impressive is that none of these games show a bias toward Intel. You can see the Arc A770 and A750 toward the bottom of the charts, showcasing the architectural improvements Intel made. In Red Dead Redemption 2, you can see the B580 also shoot ahead of graphics cards that are way more expensive, but the performance of Intel’s last-gen options shows that the game runs oddly well with Intel’s hardware.

Those are the hits, but there are plenty of misses here, as well. In Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Forza Motorsport, the B580 looks a bit less impressive. In both games, the card matches the performance of an RTX 4060, which is a GPU that still sells for $300. This is a good performance considering the price of the B580, though it’s not the earth-shattering numbers showcased in the games above.

Then there are games where the B580 straight-up loses, and sometimes by significant margins. In Black Myth: Wukong, Dying Light 2, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, the B580 barely moves the needle compared to the Arc A770 and A750, and falls significantly short of the RTX 4060 and AMD’s RX 7600 XT.

Overall, performance still swings in favor of Intel. Even matching the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 XT for $50 less is impressive, and in several games I tested, the B580 shows a large lead. Games like Black Myth and Dying Light 2 show that Intel still has some work to do, however. The performance in these titles is acceptable but largely offset by the big wins in games like Cyberpunk 2077 when looking at the performance overall.

1440p performance

All of Intel’s performance claims about the B580 were centered around 1440p, and the chart above shows why. The Arc B580 jumps to a 50% lead over the Arc A750 at 1440p, and manages an 18% lead over the RTX 4060. Those numbers are close to double what Intel claimed. More impressive, the B580 is only 6% behind the RTX 4060 Ti, due in no small part to the 12GB of VRAM that Intel is offering on this card.

The B580 scales much better to this resolution. In games where the B580 previously matched the RTX 4060 Ti, it now offers a performance improvement. You can see that in action once again in Cyberpunk 2077, Returnal, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. I re-ran these tests several times to make sure the performance was accurate, and the numbers continually came up the same. In certain titles, the B580 is much faster than its price would suggest.

These games aren’t what’s most impressive at 1440p, however. At this resolution, the weaknesses I saw at 1080p are much less pronounced. In Forza Motorsport and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, for example, the B580 now claims a small lead over the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 XT where it previously fell short.

Even games like Red Dead Redemption 2 benefit. This title clearly favors Intel and AMD over Nvidia, there’s no doubt about that, but the performance is hard to argue with. Even in this demanding game with maxed-out settings and no upscaling, you’re getting above 80 frames per second (fps) with a $250 graphics card. That’s unheard of in 2024.

Still, there are games where the Arc B580 struggles, such as Black Myth: Wukong. This game leans toward Nvidia, which should be clear from my chart. The B580 falls behind the RTX 4060, but if nothing else, it’s able to outclass the RX 7600 XT.

Finally, we have Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, where the Arc B580 couldn’t manage 60 fps and even fell short of last-gen’s Arc A770. I re-ran this test half a dozen times with the same results. Clearly Intel GPUs aren’t great in this game — a fact Intel itself reiterated to me over email during my review period — but this level of performance isn’t what I’d expect.

Despite a couple of misses, it’s clear that the Arc B580 looks its best at 1440p. My only issue is that the GPU sometimes isn’t powerful enough to hit that fated 60 fps, making this resolution much less practical than 1080p. It’s possible to get good performance at 1440p, and in many games, you can hit 60 fps without even thinking about it. But for high refresh rate users and those seeking triple-digit frame rates, you’ll either need to bump down your resolution or lower graphics settings.

4K performance

The Arc B580 isn’t powerful enough for 4K gaming, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise given that it’s a $249 graphics card. I still ran all of my tests at this resolution, however, and you can see how powerful the B580 is compared to the competition. I won’t go through all of the games I tested again at 4K. This is a good showcase simply for the 12GB of VRAM available on the graphics card.

If you look at a game like Forza Motorsport, you can see this extremely obvious wall that GPUs with 8GB of VRAM run into, and the Arc B580 is free from those problems. You won’t run into VRAM limitations in every game, or even the majority of them, especially at lower resolutions. But in titles where 8GB of VRAM isn’t enough, the Arc B580 absolutely crushes cards like the RTX 4060 Ti and RX 7600.

You don’t have to be playing at 4K, either. As recent releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle prove, 8GB can be too little even down at 1080p. The already solid performance of the Arc B580 is the big draw, but you’ll certainly appreciate having access to 12GB of VRAM in games that can take advantage of it.

Ray tracing performance

Ray tracing is a surprising strong point for Intel’s GPUs, and I’m happy to report that the B580 carries that trend forward. The Arc B580 can’t match Nvidia’s ray tracing prowess, but it’s able to shoot past what AMD is currently offering.

The comparison to AMD is a big deal here, with the B580 often jumping up a full class of GPU performance simply on the back of its ray tracing power. You can see that in action in Cyberpunk 2077 above, where the B580 is able to match the RX 7700 XT. Even more impressive, the B580 was able to top the chart at 4K in this benchmark. You wouldn’t play this way, of course, but the last-gen A750 couldn’t even finish a single benchmark pass.

This dynamic shows up even in games that use lighter forms of ray tracing, such as Returnal. In this title, the RTX 4060 Ti and RX 7700 XT are competitive with each other, but even so, the B580 blazes ahead. The GPUs that the B580 is supposed to be competing with like the RTX 4060 aren’t even in the conversation.

Dying Light 2 continues the trend, with the B580 falling just short of the RTX 4060 Ti. This level of performance is really unheard of for this category of graphics card, and it shows off just how large of a role ray tracing plays in overall performance. With AMD’s budget alternatives, you have to sacrifice ray tracing. Here, you’re getting the full package, and at a discount compared to the competition from Nvidia.

Should you buy the Intel Arc B580?

I had low expectations for the Arc B580. I didn’t think it would be bad, but it’s hard to assume the best for a graphics card that’s so aggressively priced. I figured it would be close in performance to the RTX 4060, just for $50 less. That’s not what I found throughout my testing.

Intel has delivered a GPU that blows past graphics cards that are way more expensive. It’s not even that the B580 is a good value compared to the RX 7600 XT or RTX 4060. In many titles, Intel’s graphics card is straight-up faster, price be damned. Perhaps most impressive is that the B580 can occasionally near the level of performance of an RTX 4060 Ti or RX 7700, punching massively above its weight class.

There are still issues. Intel’s drivers aren’t totally rock solid, and that shows up in games like Black Myth: Wukong and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Those are reasonable compromises based on my testing, however. Intel has delivered a lot of driver updates — over 70 since the A770 release — and some minor performance bumps in these weaker games would transform the Arc B580. Even now, however, the GPU is very easy to recommend.