Intel has announced its new Battlemage graphics cards, the Arc B580 and Arc B570, which could be a game-changer for budget 1440p gaming. These next-gen Xe2-based GPUs promise to make 1440p gaming more practical and affordable.
The flagship Arc B580 features 20 Xe-cores, 20 ray tracing units, 160 XMX AI Engines, and 12GB GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit interface. While the Arc B570 has fewer Xe-cores (18) and less memory (10GB), it boasts more memory bandwidth than Nvidia’s RTX 4060 Ti and AMD’s RX 7600 XT.
The launch prices for Intel’s reference cards are $249 for the Arc B580 and $219 for the Arc B570, making them competitive in the market. The Arc B580 will be available on December 13, 2024, while the Arc B570 will follow on January 16, 2025.
Intel’s new Battlemage GPUs may finally address the gap left by Nvidia’s RTX 3060 Ti and AMD’s RX 7600 in the budget segment. The RTX 3060 Ti was initially overpowered at launch but struggled with memory limitations, making it difficult to play games at 1440p. With Intel’s Arc B580 and B570, gamers may finally see a new contender capable of handling 1440p gaming.
While we need to test the cards ourselves, Intel’s Xe2 cores in its Lunar Lake laptops have impressed experts. The desktop version of these GPUs promises to deliver on that promise.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/computing/gpu/intel-announces-its-new-battlemage-graphics-cards-and-they-just-might-be-the-1440p-budget-champions-weve-been-waiting-for