Intel's processor division might have had its fair share of difficulties in the last year, but the same can't be said for its graphics cards. Intel announced its second-gen "Battlemage" desktop GPUs on December 4, 2024, and since then it's been surrounded by (mostly) good news.
The Arc B580 debuted on December 13 with a $249 price tag. In a GPU market dominated by NVIDIA and its pricey cards, Intel's Battlemage option sold out everywhere almost immediately. It received praise from countless tech journalists, and a majority of the initial reviews were very positive. Tom's Hardware gave it a perfect 5 stars, calling it "A spectacular success for Intel and a gateway to 1440p for gamers on a budget."
Since then there has been some rumbling about Arc B580 performance when paired with older CPUs, which I cover in more detail below. However, the general consensus remains positive, with the B580 now offering PC gamers an affordable option that can handle 1440p. With 12GB of VRAM on board, it's looking a lot more future-proof than even the NVIDIA RTX 4060 with 8GB.
With the sibling Arc B570 scheduled to launch on January 16 at $219, many are wondering if the B580 was a one-off success. This new performance leak is limited in scope, but it suggests that Intel could have another sellout on its hands.
Intel Arc B570 "Battlemage" leaks in Geekbench
First reported by Wccftech, Geekbench numbers from the upcoming Arc B570 GPU have leaked. It comes from X (formerly Twitter) user @GawroskiT, who spotted the Geekbench entry on January 12.
Intel B570 in geekbench ~10% slower than b580https://t.co/S1Ji8ltr98 pic.twitter.com/IEFEVP7XGWJanuary 13, 2025
It's no surprise to see the Arc B570 sitting at about 10% less performance than the Arc B580; the former card is meant to be an even cheaper alternative that nevertheless retains 1440p capabilities. With a price that's roughly 12.8% lower than the B580, it seems like you're getting exactly what you pay for.
Visiting the Geekbench result page directly reveals more information. The test was run on a system using Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K CPU, an MSI MEG Z890 ACE motherboard, and 48GB of DDR5 RAM. Geekbench lists the Arc B570 as having 144 compute units, a 2,750MHz maximum frequency, and 9.64GB of VRAM.
These numbers align with what Intel has listed on its B570 product page, but the boost frequency at 2,750MHz is new information. Intel only lists a 2,500MHz base frequency on the page.
These Geekbench results are ultimately a small look at the B570's potential, and as we now know, Battlemage performance seems to differ greatly depending on the CPU with which you pair it.
What's up with Battlemage performance on older CPUs?
Intel's Battlemage launch was mostly surrounded with positive vibes, but it didn't take long for some performance drawbacks to surface. The general idea is that while modern CPUs don't affect the modern GPU negatively, performance wasn't measuring up when the B580 is paired with older chips.
Hardware Unboxed published a great video tackling the subject. It was believed at first to be an issue with CPUs that don't support Resizable BAR, which came to the forefront with Intel's 10th Gen and AMD's Zen 3 desktop CPUs.
However, as Hardware Unboxed discovered in testing older chips (like the Ryzen 5 2600 that can have Resizable BAR manually enabled), the Arc B580's drop in performance on older CPUs can't be solely blamed on a lack of the tech.
The ultimate conclusion of the Hardware Unboxed video is muddy. It doesn't seem like there's an easy answer as to why the GPU drops performance when it isn't paired with a modern CPU. There's clearly some sort of overhead issue plaguing the card, but how to fix it remains to be seen.
Hardware Unboxed followed up with a re-review of the Arc B580 alongside both the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 5 5600, ultimately demonstrating that the cost per frame climbs slightly from about $4.38 to $4.80 when paired with the older CPU. Regardless, the Arc B580 remains one of the best cards on the market for budget shoppers. I'd normally suggest checking out some retailers to see what's in stock, but at the time of writing you won't find anything but scalpers demanding astronomical prices.
