In case you missed it, Intel just launched two new graphics cards – the Intel Arc B580 and Intel Arc B570. Targeting the more mid-range market, these GPUs offer some of the best value for money you’ll find right now and are scheduled for release in December 2024 and January 2025 respectively.
In its presentation (which you can watch right here), Intel discussed everything from the new Xe2 architecture, XeSS 2 upscaling with newly-added frame generation, and the performance of the two cards compared to close competition. Overall, we think it’s an impressive showing – despite the fact there’s no direct successor to last-gen’s flagship Intel Arc A770.
Modern games are hungry for your GPU memory
In Intel’s showcase of the cards, it touches on a few topics regarding the current state of PC gaming, and the hardware required in modern games. First of all, they bring up the topic of ray tracing, noting that it is “becoming standard and integrated into many AAA titles” – nothing to argue with there, even if not everyone sees it as a ‘must-have’.
Swiftly moving onto the topic of VRAM usage now. The amount of VRAM a gaming GPU ‘should’ have is fairly contested and Intel points out that “just a few generations ago, 4GB of graphics memory was sufficient.” This is certainly not the case anymore, as 8GB is “now required” and we agree. However, more and more AAA games are known to eat up your memory.
In a comparison in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Low Texture settings are demonstrated to be using over 4GB, while Ultra Textures take up vastly higher resources, with just over 9GB. Annoyingly, Intel doesn’t disclose what resolution the game is being played in here, but we expect either 1080p or 1440p as that’s what these new GPUs target. We’ve had plenty of experience with crazy high VRAM usage in modern AAA games ourselves. In Star Wars Outlaws, for example, anything less than 16GB would certainly be a bottleneck in 4K; the game was using nearly 14GB at high settings.
With all of this in mind, the Intel Arc B580 is fitted with 12GB and the B570 features 10GB. And better yet, the B580 is going to cost you just $249; the B570 comes in at $219. This makes them some of the best-value GPUs on the market, certainly more so than something like Nvidia’s RTX 4060. Intel claims the B580 offers “25% better performance per dollar” versus the competition.
