Intel’s second-generation Xe2 Arc GPUs are real, and once again, they could be attractive options for gamers looking for capable video cards under $250. confirming last week’s leaksIntel today introduced the $249 Arc B580 and the slightly less capable $219 B570, both aimed at 1440p gaming. They feature the company’s new XeSS2 AI capabilities (which also make it to older Arc cards), including increased Super Resolution (like the original XeSS), frame generation, and low-latency modes. The goal, according to Intel, is to deliver more performance per dollar compared to NVIDIA’s $299 RTX 4060 and AMD’s Radeon 7600.
It’s a noble tone, but it’s also a repeat of what Intel tried with its previous Arc GPUs. we I liked these cards well enoughand the company was diligent about releasing driver updates, but that hasn’t stopped its overall GPU market share dropping to zero percent. I’d bet a lot of gamers didn’t want to take a chance on Intel hardware and software when NVIDIA and AMD’s offerings were battle-tested and slightly more expensive.
However, the power hit of Xe2 cards may change the situation for Intel. The company claims the B580 is on average 24 percent faster than its previous limited-edition A750 GPU at 1,440p at ultra graphics settings, and also has a 10 percent advantage over NVIDIA’s RTX 4060 . the RTX 4060 in Cyberpunk 2077but at the same time it is almost 20 percent slower while playing RoboCop: Rogue City.)
In terms of specs, Intel’s new GPUs should keep up with the demands of 1,440p-focused gamers. The B580 features 20 Xe cores, 20 ray tracing units, 12 GB of VRAM and a clock speed of 2670 MHz. The B570 comes with a little less: 18 Xe cores, 10GB of RAM, and a clock speed of 2,500MHz. I’d bet most people would be better off spending the extra $30 for a little more future proofing, but 1080p gamers may not see the need for much extra power.
In a media briefing, Intel colleague Tom Petersen explained that the company learned a lot from its previous GPUs (which also marked the first time Intel worked seriously on discrete graphics). since 2010). “With XE2, we have a new hardware platform, and this allows us to offer higher utilization, better distribution of work and less software overhead,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about increasing the efficiency of the software so we can deliver the benefits of the hardware we’re building.”
At the very least, the new Intel XeSS AI features are competitive with NVIDIA’s DLSS3. The B580 GPU can double the performance of Devil IV when using XeSS, according to Intel, and the new frame generation feature should be able to increase your fps numbers even more. Like NVIDIA’s technology, it not only upscales graphics from a lower resolution, but also interpolates entirely new frames. The company’s XeSS2 low latency, or XeLL, also improves responsiveness by 45 percent. Intel claims the B580 outperforms the RTX 4060 in AI LLM performance, achieving around 20 more chips per second on the Llama 2 and Llama 3.1 workloads.
While it would be interesting to see if Intel can scale its Arc GPUs beyond the mid-range (the previous Arc 770 was a solid RTX 3070 Ti competitor), I’m honestly more intrigued by how the company is innovating on the low end . final Thanks to the increasing complexity of high-end GPUs, the idea of cheap i capable video cards have all but disappeared over the last decade. Intel could earn itself a loyal fan base of budget gamers if it did it actually keeps up with its GPU efforts.
If you’re intrigued by these new GPUs, you won’t have to wait long to get your hands on them. The Arc B580 cards will be available on December 13 for $249, while the Arc B570 models will arrive next month on January 16 for $219. Intel will make its own limited-edition version of the Arc B580 (above), but will leave the B570 cards to its partners, including Acer, ASRock and Sparkle.
