I upgraded my RTX 4070 Super and played with the Intel ARC B580 for a month. My experiences also apply to upgraders and beginners.
I like underdog hardware. There, I’ve said it. My first processor was a 386 Thomas made, nothing from Intel or AMD.
My first 3D graphics card was the Hercules Stingray 128 (in sandwich construction!) with a Voodoo Rush graphics chip. Search for it on Google – I thought the card was pretty. And yes, I know that a GPU is generally more important.
Later, the game was repeated with graphics cards with a Kyro chip, a Transmeta processor, and, well, somehow my preference for virtual reality probably belongs in the underdog category too.
So it was only natural that I got myself one of Intel’s reference models just in time for the release of the Intel ARC B580 and replaced the much more mainstream RTX 4070 Super Don’t worry, not permanently, I know that the Nvidia card is much faster.
One point that makes it clear that underdog hardware is not always the best choice. Sometimes it becomes clear why products that fit into the mainstream are more popular.
In this review, I’ll tell you to what extent this also applies to the Intel graphics card in my experience and to what extent it doesn’t.
In doing so, I noticed a few peculiarities of the Intel graphics card, especially with regard to upgrading older systems with the card, virtual reality and its use by gaming beginners.
Since this is not a test, I refer benchmark fans to the detailed test report from GameStar.
One last point: If you keep coming across a wall during this article due to technical terms or explanations, then leave the Intel card on the shelf. Because without wanting to anticipate my full conclusion: I cannot recommend the card to beginners and occasional users who don’t want to adjust settings first.
Known issues of the Intel ARC B580
Installation and setup of the B580 are no different from other cards – plug it in, connect the extra power, load the drivers, and the card is up and running. Just not necessarily with the desired performance.
If the Resizable Bar function is not configured correctly on your PC, the B580 not only loses a little performance, but a great deal, as the following video shows as an example:
Another known problem is the larger processor overhead that the Intel driver generates. This means that the graphics card puts more load on the CPU, which can cause unexpected performance bottlenecks in older models and slow down the graphics card.
And then there are games that generally run rather poorly with the Battlemage card, and hopefully driver updates will improve that.
Bossfight without a winner: Battlemage vs. older PC
Resizable Bar provided only a little extra performance for my Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 Super, the function provides a little more for AMD graphics cards. So far, though, ReBar has been more of a bonus for (a little) more performance than expected.
With Intel, however, performance drops so massively without this function that you simply can’t do without it.
I was able to make this experience when I installed the Intel card in my son’s PC for testing purposes. His RTX 2080 is still usable, but sometimes the 8 GB of graphics memory, which is rather small from today’s perspective, has a negative impact.
So why not see if Intel can help a little?
I don’t want to owe you the answer: Even if Resizable Bar is activated, it is possible that the CPU of the PC to be upgraded also does not quite meet Intel’s preferences.
AMD’s twelve-core Ryzen 9 3900X is not based on the most modern architecture and Intel’s Battlemage graphics card driver is not very frugal with processor power – a bad combination.
To do this, the system relies on a B450 mainboard, which limits the system to PCIe 3.0. However, the Intel ARC B580 only uses 8 of 16 possible PCIe lanes, which are then also addressed slowly.
The bandwidth is only at the level of 4x PCIe 4.0, so only 4 modern lanes. This sometimes causes annoying lags when the graphics memory needs to be filled with new data while gaming.
The result: An annoyed teenager, because even Marvel Rivals faltered and Rivals role model Overwatch liked to run in 1990s resolutions to stay smooth throughout. Upgraders should therefore check whether their system and the Battlemage form a team or whether they fight each other.
Stress with the Meta Quest
Since I spend a good portion of my gaming time in virtual reality, the B580 also has to show whether it is suitable for everyday use there. My primary headset is the Meta Quest 3, which can also be connected to the PC via Meta (Air-)Link, Virtual Desktop or SteamLink. Actually.
What this shows is that the official Meta Quest Link app doesn’t even recognize the Intel graphics card and thus completely refuses to connect to the headset.
The situation is similar with Steam Link: the app does connect, but SteamVR claims not to have recognized a compatible video source. So is that it for the ARC graphics card and VR with the Quest?
Fortunately not, the paid solution “Virtual Desktop” recognizes the Intel GPU and works great with it:
- With Virtual Desktop, I can either display my desktop monitor content in different virtual environments or start SteamVR for real VR games. And here SteamVR also recognizes the GPU and works as desired.
- The performance in VR is even better than I would have expected. Games like Arken Age or Half-Life: Alyx and run smoothly and Behemoth is also enjoyable. Alien Rogue Incursion has also been also no longer restricted to the Quest Link by an update and works very well with the B580.
True VR enthusiasts who also want to play flat games via mod will not be happy with the ARC’s performance – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with the Luke Ross mod, for example, is not recommended, and let’s not even talk about Cyberpunk 2077.
My conclusion: affordable and good, but not really for PC beginners
With most games for the monitor, I had no or hardly any problems with the Intel ARC B580.I play at 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, a resolution that the card can still handle quite well.
Especially when FSR or XeSS is offered, the performance fits and the raytracing performance even surprised me positively.
So if you’re putting together a new PC based on reasonably up-to-date components, you can use the B580 without hesitation, provided it fits into the desired performance class. On the other hand, I would strongly advise against upgrading older systems with PCIe Gen3 and/or rather weak processors.
But especially if your system doesn’t support Resizable Bar or you can’t easily activate the feature because your operating system isn’t installed in UEFI mode (and if you haven’t understood a word of this: even less so). The performance drop without this feature is simply too great.
