Intel Arc B580 Gets Faster: Driver Updates Tackle CPU Overhead

[Steve]

Intel's Arc B580 finally hit $250, undercutting rivals like the RTX 5060 and 9060 XT. With 12GB VRAM vs. their 8GB, it's a budget gamer's win – if Intel's lingering CPU overhead issue holds up.

Read the full article here.

Intel Arc B580 Gets Faster: Driver Updates Tackle CPU Overhead

 

[opckieran]

The real winner of this test is the 9060XT 8GB. Intel is just not moving fast enough in the GPU sector, unfortunately.

 

[Loadedaxe]

The Arc B580 wasn’t intended to directly compete with the 9060XT at launch, it was aimed at the 4060 and RX 7600.

That said, I agree that Intel’s GPU division does need to step up its pace.

 

[GeoffreyA]

Good testing. One question: is ReBAR working on the 2600? Support for Zen+ has never been clear.

 

[jpvalverde85]

Pretty good actually, that opens the can of upgrade, with the previous performance level Arc was to stay away, now it is mostly pretty good, not Radeon good but getting there.

 

[hwertz]

Since I don't use Windows I'm curious...

A) How do the Windows and Linux drivers compare? I have a 11th gen notebook (1115G4) with the "half CU count" Intel Xe, and can say the Mesa Gallium 3D drivers are fully capable (it's run literally every game I've thrown at it... just a matter of if FPS is good enough given it's the lowest-end of the Intel Xe line.)

B) Was this speedup specific to the Windows drivers, or did they find some general trick that can also be applied to the Mesa drivers and gain a speedup there as well?

Anyway, it's always nice when some nice speedups can be gotten just through driver improvements.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

The Arc B580 wasn’t intended to directly compete with the 9060XT at launch, it was aimed at the 4060 and RX 7600.

That said, I agree that Intel’s GPU division does need to step up its pace.

Well that is a problem, seeing as those GPUs were out for well over a year before the b580 showed up and the 9060 now exists.

Intel is lagging behind so badly.

 

[MonicaPython2]

B580 is promising

 

[deathspeed]

I just installed my B580 today, after months of looking for one at MSRP. For several months I could not find one at any price. I had been exclusively Nvidia since my first upgrade (a GeForce 2 MX, ironically an upgrade from an Intel i740), but they have been so unfriendly to the budget end since the legendary GTX 1060 and scammy with their product naming that I refuse to give them any more of my money.

 

[GeoffreyA]

B) Was this speedup specific to the Windows drivers, or did they find some general trick that can also be applied to the Mesa drivers and gain a speedup there as well?

The engineers working on Intel's Mesa code have been doing a lot of optimisation work these past months and removing legacy code. In their commits, they sometimes report improvement across a range of popular games. So, Linux users are certainly getting better drivers too.

B580 is promising

I just installed my B580 today, after months of looking for one at MSRP. For several months I could not find one at any price. I had been exclusively Nvidia since my first upgrade (a GeForce 2 MX, ironically an upgrade from an Intel i740), but they have been so unfriendly to the budget end since the legendary GTX 1060 and scammy with their product naming that I refuse to give them any more of my money.

Got mine in May and am glad. I have a "slow" Zen 2 APU but performance is on par with, or slightly slower than, X3D reviews in the few games I've tested. Issues have been minimal. When there is one, the Intel staff handling the Github tracker are helpful and responsive, and bugs get fixed. We tend to get a new driver every fortnight, sometimes quicker. Compute and encoding work well; for example, Resolve uses it for decoding, processing through OpenCL, and encoding. All in all, if the price is right relative to the RX 9060 XT, excellent choice.

Well that is a problem, seeing as those GPUs were out for well over a year before the b580 showed up and the 9060 now exists.

Intel is lagging behind so badly.

The B770 should match the 9060 soon, but the problem will be price.

 

[bandit8623]

What about A series?

 

[Angelscry]

Nice try TechSpot. But no thanks.

 

[toooooot]

They probably wish they had enough of this GPU when they just release it. There was a severe shortage of it. As a result, this card cost 350-400 instead of 250.
Great loss of a good opportunity for Intel.
Can they learn from it? Release a budget card with plenty of Vram in the range where people count every dollar on their purchase. And they now can use this GPU to assure buyers: see we can work with drivers, you are getting a GPU that will only get better.