Intel has officially announced its upcoming B580 and B570 Battlemage GPUs, and while some aren’t inspired by Intel’s choice to target the lower end of the price spectrum, we think it’s a great move that could pay off.
Despite being one of the industry’s biggest hardware manufacturers, Intel is a brand that has been struggling in recent months. Not only did Team Blue experience huge 13th and 14th-gen CPU instability issues that left thousands of consumers angered, but its newly rebranded Core Ultra 200 Series processor lineup received damming reviews and lackluster sales on launch. In fact, the launch was so bad that it basically handed an entire generation of hardware enthusiasts to AMD – who capitalized on the opportunity with the launch of its own Ryzen 7 9800X3D. All in all, it’s safe to say that the last 12 months have not been smooth sailing for Intel.
It isn’t all bad news though, as we think their upcoming Battlemage GPU series could be the company’s saving grace. The newly announced B580 was unveiled (alongside the lesser-powerful B570) by Intel’s Sr Director, Qi Lin, who had some interesting things to say about the card. Alongside claims of the B580 being the “quietest and fastest” card the company has ever built, Intel also showcased some 1440p gaming benchmark results, which, let’s be honest, looked pretty impressive – especially when you factor in the card’s enticing $249 price point.
Intel says that the B580 is the “best bang for your gaming buck” in today’s market, offering up what seems to be a solid 1440p gaming experience in a range of titles. If claims are to be confirmed – and the card receives positive feedback from tier 1 reviewers – there’s no reason to suggest that this card won’t be a huge success in 2025.
Intel’s Arc B580 could offer better value than Steam’s most popular gaming GPU
Intel will be targeting the $250 price point with their B580 card, putting it slap-bang in the firing range of two of the most popular GPUs used by gamers on Steam – the Nvidia RTX 3060 and 4060.
According to the Steam Hardware Survey, Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and RTX 4060 make up over 8% of all the GPUs used by Steam players, which is pretty impressive when you factor in Steam’s massive 130+ million user base. With those numbers, it’s easy to see why Intel would rather battle for mainstream success than go after NVIDIA’s RTX 4090 – a battle that AMD has been failing to accomplish for several years now.
Ultimately, the success of this card all comes down to how well the Arc B580 performs vs its closest rivals. At the time of writing, we only have Intel numbers to go off (see graph below) which boast some pretty impressive framerates at 1440p.
During the recent Battlemage announcement video, Intel’s gaming performance slide showcased the B580’s 24% uplift over the A750, meaning it should offer competitive performance when pitted against the RTX 3060 and even RTX 4060.
We won’t know the true power of the Arc B580 until review data from tier-one publications comes out sometime next week, but If it can beat both the 3060 and 4060 in 1440p gaming, it’ll certainly give entry-level gamers something to think about. Better yet, if it manages to offer a meaningful uplift over both cards, we could see a shift to Intel for people’s entry-level gaming needs.
If that were to happen, you’d have to say that this would be a huge win for Intel – and a needed win when you consider how poorly the brand has been performing in other areas.
Ultimately, we’re really looking forward to seeing what this GPU brings to the table. Will it beat the RTX 3060 or 4060 in 1440p gaming? Who’s to know. One thing is for sure though, if Intel can offer the market another decent $250 GPU, then that’s surely only a good thing for gamers.
