Intel’s latest Arc B-Series “Battlemage” graphics cards were recently released, sparking interest in how they compare to existing options. In this article, we’ll examine the performance of the B580 model under Windows 11 and Ubuntu Linux, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses.
To ensure a fair comparison, both systems were installed with clean versions of Microsoft Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 24.10 on the same hardware configuration. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor was paired with 32GB of RAM and a WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD for all tests. We used the latest graphics drivers available at the time of testing: Intel’s Windows drivers from December 14th, and Linux’s upstream open-source driver version 6.13 Git and Mesa 25.0-devel.
Our benchmarking focused on games that work well under Linux, such as those via Steam Play, and a variety of OpenGL/Vulkan tests with an emphasis on graphics driver performance rather than OS overhead. We also tested Blender with oneAPI to evaluate the GPU compute capabilities.
The results showed promising generational uplift for the Intel Arc B580 in most Linux benchmarks, but some anomalies revealed room for improvement in the Intel Linux graphics driver’s optimization of the new Xe2/Battlemage graphics support. In contrast, Windows 11 performance was more competitive with existing options like the GeForce RTX 4060.
Overall, this comparison aims to provide a balanced view of the strengths and weaknesses of the Intel Arc B-Series graphics cards under both Windows 11 and Ubuntu Linux, highlighting areas where the Linux driver can be improved upon.
Source: https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-arc-b580-windows-linux