Gadgets

The new king of GPUs under $250 (for now)

When Intel released its first Arc video cards two years ago, I was a little skeptical. Can a company that was disappointed to abandon its last major desktop GPU project in 2009 actually make a dent in a market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD? Well, when I reviewed them in 2022, the Arc A750 and A770 turned out better than I thought, even though they were also held back by Intel’s poor drivers. But it seems that Intel has learned from its mistakes.

The new $250 Arc B580 outperforms AMD’s low-end Radeon 7600, and it can even spar with NVIDIA when it comes to budget ray tracing. The only question is whether it is worth investing in an Intel video card given its rocky business outlook. But for a cheap video card, with a price going back to the early 2000s, the risk might be worth it.

Intel

Intel’s Arc B580 is a rarity: A $250 GPU that delivers solid 1080p and 1440p gaming, even with minimal tracking.

Benefits

  • It is faster than Radeon 7600 and RTX 4060
  • XeSS upscaling works fine
  • Cool and quiet operation
  • Just $250
Evil

  • XeSS is not as widely supported as DLSS 3
  • Newer AMD cards may bypass it

$250 at Newegg

The B580 marks the start of the second generation of Intel Arc Xe2 GPUs, and will be joined by the $219 B570 next month. Based on their specifications alone, it’s easy to see why they’re pushing budget games. The B580 features 20 Xe cores, 20 ray tracing units and faster clock speeds than previous Arc cards. Most importantly, though, it’s rocking 12GB of VRAM with a 192-bit memory interface, giving you more than enough room to pump out 1440p gameplay.

The $299 NVIDIA RTX 4060, by comparison, is stuck with 8GB of VRAM and a more limited 128-bit interface. Even the RTX 4060 Ti sports that small amount of VRAM, limiting both of those GPUs especially for 1080p gameplay (especially if you wanted ray tracing). AMD’s Radeon RX 7600, which costs around $269, is also loaded with 8GB of RAM and weaker ray tracing performance than NVIDIA and Intel cards.

While Intel has a clear hardware advantage, timing is again a big issue. The Arc B580 was introduced as we prepare for CES 2025, where both NVIDIA and AMD are expected to show off new desktop GPUs. Given NVIDIA’s ever-increasing prices, I wouldn’t bet on seeing the RTX 5060 around $250, but AMD is another story. It’s been trying to make an impact in the low- and mid-range GPU market for years, and it’s reportedly still doing so with its RDNA 4 cards. There’s a good chance we’ll finally see some kind of affordable next-generation GPU from AMD.

Intel Battlemage GPUsIntel Battlemage GPUs

Intel

If you need to build a budget gaming rig in the next few months though, the Arc B580 will serve you well. In my tests, it scored slightly higher than the RTX 4060 Ti in 3DMark’s Timespy Extreme Benchmark, and was significantly faster than the Radeon 7600. The B580 was even brighter in ray tracing. I hit an average of 58 fps on Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark running at 1080p with Ultra graphics settings and mid-range ray tracing. The Radeon 7600, on the other hand, sometimes struggled to stay above 40 fps at the same settings.

The GPU

TimeSpy Extreme

3Dmark Speedway

Port Royal Ray Tracing

Intel Arc B580

7,287

2,443

7,872

Intel Arc A770

6,718

N/A

6,960

NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti

6,599

3,217

8,170

AMD Radeon 7600

5,526

1,969

5,478

I’m really impressed with how well the Arc B580 handles 1440p games. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I hit 70 fps on average with high graphics settings, mid-range ray tracing and Intel XeSS enhancements turned on. That’s better performance than you’ll see on the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro (though admittedly, Sony’s PSSR AI upgrade might look better to your eyes). I also hit 85 fps on average while playing Halo Infinite at 1440p with larger graphics, which was slightly better than the 4060 Ti. While we tend to budget cards that are limited to 1080p gaming, the Arc B580’s extra memory makes it well suited for 1440p.

Intel Arc B580 rear portsIntel Arc B580 rear ports

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

However, there are advantages that the competition offers. NVIDIA’s RTX GPU can also work with its special applications, such as NVIDIA Broadcaster, which can clean up your audio and video for broadcast and recording. Additionally, NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 upscaling is available in over 500 games, while Intel’s XeSS has just cracked 200. Then there’s the driver issue: NVIDIA has years of experience building solid GPU software, while Intel is still recovering from its driver missteps. At least the XeSS 2 AI upgrade seems more useful than AMD’s FSR 3 (FidelityFX Super Resolution), as Intel’s technology seems to be much better and may increase game performance by 30 percent or more.

The Arc B580 also survived several hours of benchmarking and gaming with no hardware or driver issues. When I first tested the Arc A750 and A770, they often crashed within an hour of testing. Intel’s software has clearly made progress. The B580 reference model I tested also stayed cool under load, and didn’t exceed 64 degrees celsius (which also kept its two big fans from making too much noise). While there will be third-party cards available, I was also impressed by Intel’s reference design: The B580 feels premium and solid, not cheap and plastic like many other budget GPUs.

Viewing the Intel Arc B580 labelViewing the Intel Arc B580 label

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

At this point, it seems that Intel is already having trouble keeping the Arc B580 in stock, a pretty rare problem for the chip giant. It’s easy to see why gamers are smitten: It delivers solid 1080p and 1440p performance in many new titles, even with minimal tracking. Finally, there’s a viable $250 GPU that doesn’t make you feel like you’re behind the pack. It’s a clear win for Intel – at least until we see what’s new from AMD.


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