The new Intel Arc B580 graphics card will be released on December 13th. This is Team Blue’s first Battlemage GPU; the cheaper B570 will be coming in January. Some customers already got their hands on the card early, likely due to retailer error, and now some 3DMark benchmarks have been surfacing online, giving us a clearer idea of performance.
Intel already disclosed some official gaming results during its reveal, which allowed us to put it around the level of AMD’s RX 6700 XT. But now just a day before widespread availability, it’s looking possible that it could even reach the performance of the RX 6800 (non-XT) and RTX 4060 Ti – with some solid gains when overclocked as well.
Intel Arc B580 GPU tested in 3DMark benchmark
According to benchmarks posted by prominent hardware leaker Tomasz Gawroński, the Arc B580 offers similar scores in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad test, which is described as a “non-raytraced, cross-platform GPU benchmark that uses graphics technologies just like your favorite new game titles.”
As we can see below, the B580 manages to slot right between the 4060 Ti and RX 6800 in terms of average scores, though a larger sample size for the Intel card would help us understand where it eventually rests. The ‘estimated game performance’ also suggests Battlefield V at 1440p Ultra will run at 125+ FPS on the B580.
| GPU | Steel Nomad (DX12) highest score | Steel Nomad (DX12) average score |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Arc B580 | 2,993 | N/A (2,993 for now) |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (16GB) | 3,414 | 2,899 |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800 | 3,803 | 3,190 |
Further benchmarks posted on X by Daniel Bauer demonstrate the Vulkan API score in the same test, with the B580 hitting 3,222. However, when overclocked to 3,150 MHz, it allowed the card to jump up to a score of 3,382. Searching for Steel Nomad Vulkan tests for the 16GB RTX 4060 Ti reveals it reaches a high score of 3,503 (3,075 MHz clock speed) – the RX 6800 however boasts up to 3,851 (2,580 MHz clock speed). Again, these are record highs, so there’s plenty of time to see if the B580 can be pushed even further.
Intel advertises the B580 as a great-value option – saying it “wins in value” and offers “25% better performance per dollar” versus the RTX 4060 and RX 7600. Priced starting from just $249 and featuring 12GB of VRAM, we can’t help but think that Team Blue has a real contender for the mid-range market this upcoming generation. We won’t get to see how AMD and Nvidia respond until early 2025, but there are certainly exciting times ahead.
