THE ARC-FUL DODGER

Intel has gifted the GPU scene with a bona fide bargain, and it is glorious

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IT'S BIT OF A STRETCH on that pun up there, but if we're honest, Intel has pulled off an epic heist with its latest budget GPU, worthy of Jack Dawkins himself.

Unlike its latest CPU escapades, the Arc B580 has caught the PC enthusiast community by surprise. Not only is it incredibly well positioned in the market, but it has also shattered performance expectations, all while outclassing pretty much every other budget to mid-range graphics card. It's fast becoming Intel's prodigal son for 2025.

We should have seen this coming, of course. Intel's first-gen line-up of its A700 series graphics cards equally represented an incredible-value proposition, thanks to solid 1080p and 1440p performance at a relatively minimal outlay. That had already ruffled the feathers of AMD and Nvidia in the process, although neither one did much about it other than a customary price cut. With an additional generation now under Intel's belt, we're starting to witness that impressive design philosophy mature into something truly special.

With all the hype surrounding the plucky little pixel-producing underdog, we had no choice but to push this thing to the limits ourselves; to grab it quick and shove it inside of our silver snuff box, before the MPC team were hauled off to Australia by boat, probably.

Still, that's exactly what we've done here today. If you're looking for an entry-level to mid-range system to sink your teeth into for the new year, and are willing to make a few tweaks to our component selections on the proceeding pages, you could be close to sidling up to a suitably stealthy $1,500 build that not only looks super, clean but also delivers on bang for the buck as it does so, demolishing 1440p gaming in the process. This is the Intel Arc B580 build. Let's go. -ZAK STOREY

CPU $280