Intel recently announced their newest graphics cards, the Intel ARC B Series graphics cards. Now, just a week later, they are now available in our gaming desktops.
We will have the ARC B580 in select prebuilt gaming desktops as well as an option in our custom configurator. Let’s take a look at what is new with these exciting, code-named Battlemage, graphics cards.
Table of Contents
Intel ARC B Series Graphics Cards – What’s New?
Intel has introduced two new graphics cards in the Intel ARC B Series lineup. The Intel Arc B580 and B570 GPUs promise to offer best-in class value for performance at an accessible price point to most gamers.
Enjoy modern gaming features and accelerated AI workloads. Included with these graphics cards are Intel X Matrix Extensions (XMX) AI engines, which power the newly introduce XeSS 2, which uses three technologies together to boost performance, visual fluidity, and responsiveness.
In their press release, Vivian Lien, Intel Vice president and general manager of Client graphics said, “The new Intel ARC B Series GPUs are the perfect upgrades for gamers. They deliver leading performance-per-dollar and great 1440p gaming experiences with XeSS 2, second-generation ray tracing engines and XMX AI engines. We’re delighted to be joined by more partners than ever so that gamers have more choice in finding their perfect design.”
Intel Arc B Series: The New Architecture
The new Intel Arc B Series GPUs use Intel’s latest Xe2 architecture. This new architecture is designed to deliver improved efficiency and higher performance per core while requiring less software overhead.
These new cores deliver more solid computer capabilities that todays modern workloads and games demand, boosted by high performance XMX AI engines.
Meanwhile the new Xe-cores feature far more capable ray tracing units, improved mesh shading performance, and a wider support of key graphics functions.
Overall, all of these improvements significantly increase performance efficiency with the latest game engines.
XeSS 2
XeSS 2 is Intel’s image scaling technology (think DLSS or FSR) with frame generation. It now includes three technologies. XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation, and Xe Low Latency. With all three of these technologies working in tandem, XeSS 2 is capable of increasing output by up to 3.9X to deliver the highest performance in even the most demanding AAA games.
XeSS Super Resolution
This is the key technology that was introduced with the first generation of XeSS, which offers AI-based upscaling and is now available across more than 150 games. XeSS 2 improves on this foundation, further boosting performance in games while providing a crisp image on screen.
XeSS Frame Generation
All new AI-powered XeSS Frame Generation boosts framerates by adding interpolated frames using optical flow and motion vector reprojection. The result is faster framerates and higher fluidity gaming.
Xe Low Latency
New Xe Low Latency integrates with game engines to provide faster response times to your inputs.
The Importance of This 2nd Generation
While the first generation Intel ARC graphics cards we not the resounding success Intel was hoping for, they were a solid launching off point for injecting some much needed competition into the graphics card space dominated by (mostly) NVIDIA and AMD Radeon.
While not necessarily better than most GPUs on the market, the first generation ARC cards were sold at a competitive price point, offering strong performance in specific areas like XeSS upscaling, solid power efficiency, and driver optimizations that consistently improved their performance.
With the latest generation of Intel ARC B Series graphics cards, Intel has made major leaps in performance. Coupled with the fact that their graphics technology can be scaled across a variety of devices from dedicated graphics cards like B580 & B570, to laptops, and handhelds. – Intel Arc B-Series GPUs benefit from a robust software environment across all of their graphics portfolio.
Compared to the previous generation cards, Intel Arc B-Series GPUs offer 70% improved performance per Xe-core and 50% more performance per watt.
Comparing the B580 to last gen’s Arc A750, it is on average 24% faster at 1440p with some games even reaching up to 78% faster. If you compare Intel Arc B580 to the competition, it offers up to 32% performance-per-dollar, according to Intel.
The Intel ARC B580 features 12GB of dedicated GPU memory. The ARC B570 features 10GB. So gamers can expect high performance gaming aimed at providing a smooth experience at 1440p ultra quality settings, especially when enhanced by AI-powered XeSS 2 technologies.
New and improved Intel Graphics Software provides access to display settings including enhanced color & scaling modes and support for variable refresh rate (VRR). More robust 3D graphics settings include a FPS limiter and a driver level low latency mode. Perform basic and advanced overclocking and metric monitoring with better performance controls powered by the open source PresentMon, including support for frame generation and latency measurements
Intel Arc B-Series Features
Besides vastly improved gaming performance and efficiency, let’s take a look at some of the other features included in these new Arc cards.
Improved Game Driver Support
Intel Arc B-Series GPUs will continue to get the same excellent driver support as the previous generation. Enjoy optimized software and performance for popular games, right on launch day.
AI Support
Intel supports an easy free AI starter application designed to run various generative AI workloads locally. From custom chatbots fed with your own data, to AI enhanced photo editing and upscaling, and even text to image generation – all powered locally by your Arc GPU.
Productivity Boosting Media Engines
Use Intel’s Xe Media engine featuring twin multi-format transcoders to create and playback multimedia faster and with better quality. Arc B series GPUs also have expanded hardware encode and decode support – including AV1, H.265, 4:2:2 10-bit, H.264 and VP9.
.
Availability at CyberPowerPC
Intel Arc B580 graphics cards are now available in our gaming pcs. Choose from ASRock Intel® Arc™ B580 Challenger (dual fans) or the ASRock Intel® Arc™ B580 Steel Legend (triple Fans). Visit the our Intel Arc B-Series page to learn more!