Intel Arc B580: The first worthy budget GPU of the decade

Finally, a good gaming option for PC enthusiasts on a budget!

- BRAD CHACOS

Intel's $249 Arc B580 is the graphics card we've begged for since the pandemic.

That was the headline I used for our initial coverage of Intel's second-generation discrete graphics cards (fave.co/3WqnGRk), because it's true—at least on paper. Nvidia and AMD have been nerfing the memory system of sub-$350 graphics cards since the pandemic, limiting their best use to 1080p resolution. Meanwhile, gamers are increasingly buying 1440p monitors (fave.co/40BxlkQ), a very tangible and affordable upgrade. Intel's Arc B580 packs 12GB of VRAM to excel at 1440p gaming, with a $249 price point that undercuts its rivals' entry-level 1080p offerings.

Now that we've spent a week testing and gaming on the Intel Arc B580, I can confirm it: Intel's $249 Arc B580 really, truly is the graphics card we've begged for since the pandemic. It's not perfect—performance lags behind the competition in a couple notable games, and we were hoping for slightly higher overall results—but in general, this graphics card outpunches the $300 Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600, with the lead growing even larger at 1440p.

This is a great graphics card for someone who wants to play modern PC games without mortgaging away their future. Check out the video above for a game-by-game, Photoshop-by-Photoshop analysis of our testing. Below, we'll present the same benchmarks, but focused in on the five key things gamers need to know before buying the Intel Arc B580. Check out our initial Arc B580 announcement coverage (fave.co/3WqnGRk) if you want more nitty-gritty technical information on the guts inside Intel's new Xe 2-powered GPU.

1. THE ARC B580 REALLY IS BUILT FOR 1440P GAMING

Before we wade into benchmarks, let's quickly touch on the Arc B580's differentiator: