Intel announces ARC B580 and B570 graphics cards

A ARC B580 e B570

The Intel ARC A580 is a board based on 20 second-generation Intel Xe cores, while the B570 reduces that count to 18 cores. Thanks to the 70% increase in performance thanks to the restructuring of the Intel Xe 2 cores, the B580 can be 24% faster than the A750, a card that has 28 Intel Xe cores.

Intel presented its new products with a focus on 1440p in ultra quality, but when comparing performance, it selected as rivals the Radeon RX 7600 and the GeForce RTX 4060. Both cards are highlighted by AMD and Nvidia as products for running games at Full HD.

In comparisons, the B580 is 10% ahead, on average, of the RTX 4060 in games run at 1440p on ultra. However, in a more detailed comparison in Forza Horzion 5, the company makes it clear that in high quality the RTX 4060 is ahead, but when changing the graphic quality to more advanced modes, the video memory bottleneck makes the B580 take the lead , as it is capable of sustaining performance at higher resolutions and higher definition textures.

Both the RX 7600 and the RTX 4060 are cards equipped with 8GB of VRAM, an amount that can be insufficient even at 1080p in ultra quality games, even worse at 1440p. Intel equipped the B580 with 12GB, while the B570 comes with 10GB.

Second generation Intel XeSS

Along with the launch of the cards, Intel introduced new features in the software. The first is an XeSS frame generator. It operates in a very similar way to the DLSS frame generator, but with an important advantage: it will not require new hardware to use, so Intel ARC A series owners will also be able to take advantage of the feature.

The frame generator does not depend on new hardware because the optical flow analysis will not be done by new hardware, as was done on the GeForces RTX 40, which introduced an optical flow accelerator. Inferences will be made via AI, and combined with information from the game’s graphics engine motion vectors. As the two pieces of information will present discrepancies, an AI model will carry out the process of unifying the two pieces of information, generating the picture produced via AI.

In the end, by combining the upscaler that was already present in Intel

Another feature already present in rivals that finally arrives in Intel ARC is the low latency mode. Intel XeLL, or more responsive gameplay.

Improved driver

Intel ARC will also receive a new driver interface. The first new feature are more complex image display adjustments, making it possible to change resolution scales and other functions of this type via hardware.

The other is frame production limiting features and other performance adjustments, with more detailed frame production diagnostics and graphics card component statistics.

And the greatest depth was in the overclocking part. Intel provided more complete tools in a friendly interface in the driver to make adjustments to operating frequencies and voltages, making it possible to make offsets to change the operation of Intel ARC and enable performance increases. The new features will be available for the new Battlemage as well as the first generation, codenamed Alchemist, of the ARC A series cards.

ARC B580 and B570 pricing and availability

The Intel ARC Battlemage, with the ARC B580 will be available from December 13th, with a suggested price of US$ 249. The B570 comes soon after, on January 16th, with a price of US$ 219. These values ​​bring a interesting competition for the RTX 4060, which currently costs US$299, and the Radeon RX 7600, which currently sells for US$249 at American online retailers.

There is no news yet on the launch of future models, but there is still potential for a launch of the B700 line, bringing a count of 32 Xe cores, as was the A770 in the first generation, as well as a more entry-level product, a potential B300, with 8 Intel Xe cores like the A380.