Intel Arc B580 'Battlemage' GPU announced - 1440p Ultra gaming for $249

Intel's first next-gen Battlemage desktop graphics cards will be here in a little over a week - with the Intel Arc B580 debuting on December 13, 2024, starting at $249 USD. With the company's new Xe2 architecture and BMG-G21 chip, it'll be joined by the cutdown Intel Arc B570 on January 16, 2025, starting at $219 USD.

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In addition to an Intel Arc B580 Limited Edition reference card that Intel says is whisper quiet thanks to its revamped design and increased airflow, B-Series 'Battlemage' partners include Acer, ASRock, Gunnir, Maxsun, Onix, and Sparkle. Multiple B-Series B580 and B570 cards are coming, with Intel telling media that they're already being shipped to retailers.

Although Intel's first Battlemage GPU is not the beefier B750 (Intel wasn't ready to talk about its B-Series roadmap), the B580 is still being positioned as a 1440p Ultra gaming card that can handle modern blockbuster titles with or without ray-tracing. And it's ready to give budget-conscious gamers a different option.

Here's a look at the specs.

The B580 and B570 are powered by a single 8-pin connector. They're also PCIe 4.0 x8 cards with DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 display connectors.

Yes, one of the reasons the Intel Arc B580 can handle '1440p Ultra' gaming is that it features 12GB of VRAM, which is 50% more than the GeForce RTX 4060 and the Radeon RX 7600 - its direct competition. With a baseline performance target of 60 FPS, the Intel Arc B580 was able to clear this convincingly across 40+ titles benchmarked.

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According to Intel, the Arc B580 is 24% faster than the Arc A750, thanks to the new Xe2 architecture. The Xe2 Core redesign improves general rendering and ray-tracing, with 70% more performance per core than first-gen Arc and a 50% performance per watt. With less overhead and a more efficient design, the B580 and B570 also benefit from dozens of driver updates and improved game coverage that Arc Graphics has received.

Intel is also catching up to NVIDIA thanks to the B-Series launching alongside XeSS 2. This pairs the company's AI-powered upscaling with its brand-new Frame Generation tech and XeLL (or Low Latency) - which is essentially Intel's DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Reflex.

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With improved responsiveness and performance compared to native rendering, like NVIDIA's approach, it does require game integration. F1 24 is set to be the first game to implement XeSS 2, with nine other titles confirmed as 'XeSS 2 Coming Soon.'

It's unclear if this will be ready on day one, but Intel is committed to XeSS. It's available in over 150 games and has recently been updated to support DirectX 11 and Vulka APIs. With Arc also being a mobile GPU architecture, XeSS will become increasingly crucial to the future of Arc. Especially if the desktop focus shifts to more affordable cards like the new B580.

Stay tuned for our full review.

• Read more: Intel Arc B580 'Battlemage' GPU announced - 1440p Ultra gaming for $249
• Read more: Intel Arc B580 is 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, 24% faster than Arc A750
• Read more: Intel announces XeSS 2 with new Frame Generation and Low Latency tech
• Read more: Intel has been testing Battlemage GPU drivers 24/7 to ensure a smooth launch