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Battlemage lives: Intel announce the Arc B580 and B570 graphics cards1440p-minded GPUs launch from December, both under $250
1440p-minded GPUs launch from December, both under $250
Image credit:Intel
Image credit:Intel
Well slap my backplate and call me CUDA, because not only are Intel’s Arc Battlemagegraphics cardsnot dead – having once been mired in production trouble rumours – but they’ve got names and are out from next week. The CPU makers’ second batch of dedicated gaming GPUs (following the decent budget-end Alchemist series) will comprise the Arc B580, releasing December 13th at $249, and the Arc B570, which arrives on January 16th from $219.
These prices tell us that Battlemage will, as Alchemist did, attempt to bite into the sub-$250 slice of gaming GPU market share pie that Nvidia and AMD seem content to leave uneaten. This time, however, Intel say they’re aiming for speedy 1440p play, which would suggest a huge performance upgrade over 1080p-focused Alchemist models like theArc A750. “Best-in-class performance-per-dollar”, no less, according to themarketing bumf.
Image credit:Intel
Anyway, I’m more interested in straight-up, traditionally rendered framerates, and specifically whether Intel really can pull off a proper 60fps@1440p card – or two – at such a low price. Or, as we would have said in 2016 or so, a price. The last few years have seen GPU costs rise, yet the GPU themselves sometimesstruggling to keep upwith the ever-increasing demands of high fidelity games, to the extent that you can easily end up dropping £500/$500 or more to get a truly capable Quad HD engine. We probably can’t expect the Arc B580 to knock theRTX 4070 Superoff its premium perch, but given the dearth of compelling options in the lower budget ranges, I’m certainly willing to watch it take a shot.
In other graphics card news, Nvidia are widely expected to reveal the GeForce RTX 5090 at Las Vegas’ CES show in early January. It will probably cost more than $219. Just a bit.
