Intel has announced its next-gen Battlemage graphics cards, succeeding the DG2/Alchemist series that launched two years ago. The new Arc B-Series cards boast improved performance and features, including support for fully open-source graphics driver support on Linux.
The initial Battlemage graphics card is the BMG-G21 GPU with 20 Xe cores, 160 XMX engines, and 192-bit GDDR6 video memory interface. Intel claims up to a 70% improvement in performance per Xe core and up to a 50% performance per Watt improvement.
The Arc B580 boasts 12GB of GDDR6 video memory and a 190W total board power rating, while the Arc B570 has 10GB of GDDR6 video memory and a 150W board power rating. Both cards operate on a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and require one 8-pin PCI Express power connector.
The new graphics cards support AV1, HEVC, AVC, VP9, and XAVC-H hardware acceleration, but lack VVC. Intel claims the Arc B580 is 24% faster than the Intel Arc A750 in Windows benchmarks, or 10% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060.
The Arc B580 will ship next week for $249+ USD, while the Arc B570 will ship on January 16 at $219+ USD. Linux support will be available soon, with upstream support expected to include the stable Linux 6.12 kernel and latest Mesa graphics drivers.
Source: https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-arc-b580-battlemage