Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 review: punchy performance at a budget price
Table of Contents
Intel Arc cards have been very competitive in today’s market, undercutting competitor pricing while still providing impressive performance for the value. The latest generation of Battlemage GPUs hammers that home even more, and at the top is the Arc B580 – Intel’s budget-tailored card that delivers more than its price tag might suggest.
Today, we’ll be looking at Acer’s Nitro B580, and much like the other B580s in the range, this graphics card is designed for 1440p gaming, even with its robust VRAM setup. In comparison to other models, however, the Nitro does run a bit hotter than standard and might benefit from some tweaking – but does that take anything away from this value-for-money GPU?
In the following guide, we’ll be putting the Acer Nitro B580 to the test, benchmarking its gaming and workstation performance, while comparing it to some of the market’s similarly priced alternatives.
- GPU: BMG-G21
- Shading units: 2,560
- VRAM: 12GB GDDR6
- Memory bus width: 192-bit
- Bandwidth: 456GB/s
- Base/Boost clock speed: 2,670/2,740MHz
Overall, the Acer Nitro B580 is a top model of a graphics card. Capable of 1440p and top 1080p performance, it brings about the full extent of the Intel Battlemage chip. Even though seemingly at idle, the smaller card runs hot, it doesn’t have those problems under load and might benefit from a custom fan curve. So, as long as you can find it for the right price and in stock, it can be the best budget pick of the lot for gaming.
- Slim and compact design
- Strong performance
- Plentiful VRAM for the tier
- Relatively high idle temps
- Hard to find stock and high price above MSRP
Pricing
One of the main appeals of the Arc B580 is just how affordable it is. Featuring a decent VRAM implementation in the range, it is a rather competitive proposition in the graphics card market. The GPU hits shelves with an MSRP of $249, making it much cheaper than other, similarly-performing alternatives – such as the RTX 4060/5060 at $299, or the RX 7600 at $269. That said, the B580 promises much better performance, something more toward the low-mid range than entry level.
However, with so many custom models to choose from, it’ll come as no surprise to hear that not all are priced quite as low. In particular, at the time of writing, the Acer Nitro model can be found on Newegg for $319, and in the UK for £269. That price hike compared to the suggested cost is not ideal and, in fact, puts the value of the card into question. It would be best to try to get it for close to the MSRP instead.
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Design and specs
| Spec | Arc B580 | Arc A580 |
|---|---|---|
| Microarchitecture | Xe2 | Xe HPG |
| Lithography | TSMC N5 | TSMC N6 |
| Xe-cores | 20 | 24 |
| Render slices | 5 | 6 |
| Ray tracing units | 20 | 24 |
| Xe vector engines | 160 | 384 |
| Graphics Clock | 2,670MHz (2,740MHz Acer Nitro) | 1,700MHz |
| GPU Peak TOPS | 233 | 197 |
| TBP | 190W | 185W |
| PCIe version | 4.0 x8 | 4.0 x16 |
| Memory | 12GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Interface/Speed/Bandwidth | 192-bit/19Gbps/456GB/s | 256-bit/16Gbps/512GB/s |
| Video outputs | HDMI 2.1, DP 2.1 | HDMI 2.1, DP 2.0 |
| Launch price | $249/£249 | $180/£180 |
| Launch Date | December 2024 | October 2023 |
As with the other custom models of the B580 I’ve looked at, the main specs remain much the same on this card; it’s the clock rate and general design that make each model unique. In the case of the Acer Nitro, it overclocks the graphics clock up to 2,740MHz over the 2,670 default that Intel provides.
That isn’t the highest boost speed you’ll find for this card, though, as there are models that supersede this, like the Maxsun iCraft reaching 2,850MHz, while the Sparkle Titan offers the same 2,740 MHz overclock as the Acer Nitro. Still a fairly decent improvement over the base clock, and there’s nothing stopping you from improving on that yourself.
Some of the highlights of the Arc B580 specs are that it comes with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM at a bandwidth of 456GB/s, which trumps the competition and gives it somehwat of an edge, even with fast video output to utilize, and a low total board power that keeps your power requirements at a minimum.
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 backplate, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 PCIe slot, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 IO, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 logo, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 edge logo, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 front profile, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 front, Image by PC Guide
Thanks to the card’s lower power design, the Nitro fits the two-slot sizing and keeps to two fans, minimizing its length and width. This also leads to the card’s lighter weight, which seems surprisingly different from other cards and keeps things simpler with its design.
As for the front of the card, it’s a very edgy sort of design; the two frostblade fans are embedded in a plate covered in angles and various heights of plastic. Adding an ‘N’ logo in between the fans and a stripe of silver at the top, folding over the edge, it breaks up the typical dark look of graphics cards.
It’s a bit more simplified on the back, sticking to a more basic aluminum backplate with a stylized Nitro logo and cool-looking circuitry shapes. But that’s only half the board; the other side is a flow-through design, and the PCB only takes up the first half. Bringing out the hexagonal cut-outs exposes the large heatsink and copper heat pipes to allow its cooling to be the most effective.
Bolstered by the half-cut edge on the side, along with the perforations on the IO end. All of which combine to create a great-looking card without the need for RGB or any extras to make it stand out. One of the best things is that it only requires an 8-pin power connector, which cuts down on any sort of cable management woes.
Gaming and workstation performance
Next up, I took the B580 to our testing lab to put the card through our standard GPU tests to evaluate its performance. I’ve also already got the results for the other Arc B580s and a couple of other choice cards to use as a comparison for the range of options. Even looking at the thermal performance to see how well the Nitro does at keeping its temperatures in check.
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime X870-P WiFi
- CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- RAM: Corsair Dominator Titanium RGB (64GB, 6600MT/s, CL32)
- CPU Cooler: ROG RYUJIN III 360
- PSU: 1000W Phanteks
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 in bench, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 testing, Image by PC Guide
Gaming
In gaming benchmarks, the card did fairly well across the board, much like other B580s that we tested. It was only a couple of frames here and there that differentiated the various models, something that can be further tested for variance between runs. You can see those differences in our graphs below.
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 CS2, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Cyberpunk 2077, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Doom Eternal, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Indiana Jones The Great Circle, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 AC Mirage, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Horizon Zero Dawn, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 F1 24, Image by PC Guide
In terms of the other tier of graphics cards, it beats out the RTX 4060 in various games, or is on the same level, depending on which one you look at. For example, in Counter-Strike 2, the two are rather similar in performance, with around 90 fps on average for the two at 1080p, while at 1440p, they are closer to 70 fps on average. In Doom Eternal, that comes out in Intel’s favor as it gains 10s of fps over the 4060.
Yet it still falls behind some of the higher-tier cards, as you might expect, where they offer higher framerates. Such as the 5060 Ti moving up nearly 20% over the B580 in these gaming benchmarks. But that is, of course, at a higher cost, with an MSRP of nearly $200 more, it’s more suited for 1440p and higher. While the B580 excels at 1080p and 1440p, it’s the next section that might be dissuasive to your needs and its capabilities.
Synthetic
In the synthetics and more creative workloads, the Intel cards can have a rougher time. It’s not the same across the board, but it definitely can impact your performance depending on what you need them for.
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Blender, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Geekbench, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 Geekbench AI, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 HandBrake Time Taken, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 HandBrake Average FPS, Image by PC Guide
Acer Nitro Intel Arc B580 3DMark, Image by PC Guide
3DMark imitates more game-like performance, so the B580 quite easily leads ahead of the pack, but when turning to Blender and rendering out scenes, the Nvidia RTX 4060 pulls ahead. There, the Intel card doesn’t quite keep up with the Nvidia card.
Even in video encoding, it depends on which one you use to be able to gain an advantage. As QSV provides the same sort of speeds as the 4060, it loses out in VCN. Since HandBrake doesn’t offer AV1 yet, it might be the one to go for instead, as Intel is prominent in its support of the standard.
Thermal
When it comes to the thermals, I loaded up Furmark 2 and ran it for 15 minutes. Observing the temperatures of their graphics card components, including fan and power behavior during that time and after. You can see the results of that below with HWinfo’s information.
In this case, you can see the spike of Furmark starting just after the five-minute mark and the response to it. The power immediately spikes to near 140W, and the temperatures rise. Even though they already sit at a rather high idle rate of 55-60°C, even with 20W going through it, it then jumped to around 74°C.
With the fan kicking in and ramping above 1600RPM, the temperature of the components began to drop, leading to a plateau at around 63°C, which is fairly normal and well-cooled. The fans spun at 1400 RPM, which did make an audible ‘whir’, but nothing too obnoxious.
After finishing the test, the card slowly fell silent as temperatures dropped. But even still, it was bizarre to see them climb again, and the idle temperatures are surprisingly large for the card. It might just be that the heatsink stabilizes at that high temperature on passive heat dissipation.
Conclusion
- GPU: BMG-G21
- Shading units: 2,560
- VRAM: 12GB GDDR6
- Memory bus width: 192-bit
- Bandwidth: 456GB/s
- Base/Boost clock speed: 2,670/2,740MHz
Overall, the Acer Nitro Arc B580 is an optimal card for those looking for 1080p or 1440p performance while looking the part and offering the necessary thermal performance. Even though it runs a bit hot on idle, it’s not a worrying amount, and you can definitely customize the fan curve if you prefer. All while offering a slight boost in performance over base, it still impresses in general.
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