Intel introduced new Battlemage graphics cards

They introduced the Arc B580 and Arc B570, which will try to conquer the lower price market, i.e. under or around €300, where there really isn't much (good) competition at the moment. At the event, they were compared to the existing RTX 4060 and RX 7600 cards.

Intel's Battlemage graphics cards will be able to use ray-tracing technology and artificial intelligence upscaling via the XeSS 2 system to play games at 1080p and 1440p. Powered by new AI-based drivers called Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX), XeSS 2 has support for frame generation and low latency modes, which should increase frames per second (FPS) in supported games.

In addition, the Arc B series will include Intel's Xe2 architecture, which aims to provide more efficient performance per core. In addition to affordable performance, Battlemage cards can also be used in AI-based workloads.

The Arc B580 will hit the shelves first (December 13) with a starting price of 249 $. A month later (January 15), the Arc B570 arrives for 219 $ (we don't have European prices yet). The Arc B580 will have 12 GB of VRAM (GDDR6) and the Arc B570 will have 10 GB. Both will have frequencies from 2500 to 2670 MHz and memory speeds of up to 19 Gb/s. We will only need one 8-pin connector for connection, the first versions will be equipped with two fans.

They also announced the names of the partners who will prepare their versions. Acer and AsRock are well-known names for most fans, while Gunnir, Maxsun, Onix and Sparkle are not often seen in our market, or they usually stay more in the Chinese market.

Partner card prices are usually more expensive, with a different design (more or less fans) and a different frequency.

What about performance? On average, the Arc B580 should outperform the Arc A750 by about 24 % at 1440p resolution. Intel says that it can compete with the RX 7600 and RTX 4060 (Ti) cards, or even have a better price-to-performance ratio. Both cards are at least a year old now, and in all likelihood we'll get some kind of refresh from the competition in the middle of next year.

The Intel Arc B580 has 20 Xe cores, 20 ray-tracing units, 160 XMX AI drives and, as already mentioned, 12 GB of VRAM with a 192-bit data interface. Going by this data alone, this could be a very good card for 1440p gaming, especially at this price.

The Intel Arc B570 has 18 Xe cores, 18 ray-tracing units, 144 XMX AI drives and 10 GB of VRAM with a 160-bit data interface. Leaving aside for the moment the cores and the raw performance, for which we will prefer to wait for independent tests, the big advantage of the new Intel cards compared to the RX 7600 and RTX 4060 is the VRAM capacity. At 1440p, both competing cards often struggle due to limited memory.

If they take care of good drivers, Intel has a good chance of taking the scalp of the red and green teams.