Intel has introduced a dual-slot, single-power, midrange AIB at an attractive price of $250, with excellent performance and low power consumption. With the release of this product, Intel has demonstrated that it is very much in the dGPU and AIB markets and has spoken of two more generations in the pipeline. We tested the new AIB using several synthetic benchmarks and various PC triple-A FPS games and found the results to be pleasantly surprising.
You don’t have to be a bazillionaire or annuity kid to get a high-performance gaming rig. Moore’s law is still very much alive and has been faithfully improving performance to where a top-of-the-line midrange system will give you plenty of enjoyment with leading-edge AAA games.
A home-built (DIY) PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and an Intel upper-midrange Arc B580 AIB will surprise you, and it can be put together for under $1,000.
- $479 CPU (120W)
- $250 AIB (190W)
- $180 32GB DDR5 (4W)
- $909 total (<350W)
Add $170 for an AM5 motherboard if you don’t already have one. We assume you have a monitor (how else are you reading this?) and some kind of a box with a CPU cooler and at least a 600W PSU.
We wrote about the B580 a couple of weeks ago, and you can find that review here.
We tested the new AIB in an AMD 4.7 GHz Ryzen 7 9800X3D-based system with 32GB DRR5, and a Samsung 1TB SSD 990 Pro.
Synthetic benchmarks
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) acquired Futuremark 10 years ago and has consistently invested in new benchmark developments to the point where UL is the gold standard in benchmarking on various platforms. The company has a suite of synthetic PC benchmarks that measure the performance of GPUs and CPUs.
We ran 3DMark Steel Nomad, a benchmark that evaluates the performance of a gaming PC’s GPU by using graphics technologies similar to those found in new games. 3DMark Steel Nomad is a cross-platform, non-ray-traced benchmark that uses DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. It runs at 4K resolution and uses graphics technologies like volumetric skies, procedural grass, and volume illumination.
3DMark Steel Nomadis the successor to the popular 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. Nomad was developed with input from AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and other UL Benchmark Development Program members.
To justify the claim of a high-performance DIY machine, we ran a series of tests with a lot of ray tracing—one of the (maybe the) most challenging features and highly resolution-sensitive. So, let’s look at that.
We segmented the testing into synthetic benchmarks and in-game benchmarks employing ray tracing.
Supersampling and upscaling
In UL’s scaling test, the 3DMark Feature testis a special test designed to highlight specific techniques, functions, or capabilities. The Intel XeSS Feature test shows how XeSS affects performance. The 3DMark Intel XeSS frame inspector tool helps compare image quality with an interactive side-by-side comparison of XeSS and native-resolution rendering.
The frame rate is determined by the time taken to trace and shade a set number of samples for each pixel, combine the results with previous samples, and present the output on the screen. The rendering resolution is 2560×1440.
Synthetic ray-tracing benchmarks
UL’s ray-tracing benchmarks are designed to make ray-tracing performance the limiting factor. Instead of traditional rendering techniques, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass. Camera rays are traced across the field of view with small, random offsets to simulate a depth-of-field effect.
3DMark Port Royal was Underwriters Laboratories’ and the industry’s first real-time ray-tracing benchmark for gamers. It uses DirectX ray tracing to enhance shadows, reflections, and other effects. It also includes the DirectX Raytracing Feature test, the Intel XeSS Feature test, and the Nvidia DLSS Feature test.
The company also offers a 3DMark DirectX Raytracing Feature test that measures the performance of dedicated hardware by ray-tracing and drawing the entire scene in one pass.
We also ran UL’s 3DMark Speed Way, a benchmark that tests the performance of gaming PCs running Windows 10 or 11 and is capable of ray tracing. It’s designed to show off the new features of DirectX 12 Ultimate, such as mesh shaders and real-time ray-traced reflections.
The Intel Arc B580 did quite well in the synthetic benchmark tests, as shown in the following chart. We used our Pmark evaluation.
The Pmark uses the AIB’s price, power, and performance (the three Ps) to determine a board’s overall figure of merit. The Arc B580 scores high because of its low price, power consumption, and very good test results.
In-game benchmark tests
We only use games with built-in benchmark tests to maintain consistency and repeatability. We used four games and ran three such tests at various resolutions and features on and off.
Cyberpunk 2077 was designed as a DirectX 12-only game from its release in December 2020 by Warsaw, Poland-based CD Projekt Red. Cyberpunk 2077 uses the company’s proprietary Red game engine and introduced support for Intel XeSS on April 11, 2023, as part of its 1.62 ray-tracing Overdrive Mode update.
Cyberpunk 2077 is generally GPU-bound in most scenarios, especially at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K, where the game’s detailed visuals and ray-tracing effects increase the demand for graphical processing power. GPU-bound games are the perfect test for an AIB.
There is a bug that Intel acknowledges in the 1440 test with XeSS off. So, that will be a driver update as soon as they get it sorted.
Although Shadow of the Tomb Raider, developed by Eidos-Montréal, is an older game, it was upgraded to work with Intel XeSS support on September 28, 2022. This update enabled XeSS graphics support for DX12’s built-in benchmark, which offers three levels of XeSS on and an off option.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses the Foundation Engine, developed by Crystal Dynamics. Given its heavy reliance on detailed graphical fidelity, it is generally GPU-bound.
Chernobylite is a first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by The Farm 51 in Gliwice, Poland. Chernobylite Enhanced Edition features ray-traced reflections and ray-traced lighting. Chernobylite used Unreal Engine 4 and DX12. Chernobylite’s ray-tracing effects are pretty demanding on Ultra settings. The game is different in that it utilizes 3D scanning in a way that is not used in other games—almost every piece of Exclusion Zone in the game is a digital copy of the real object.
The latest major PC version of Chernobylite, the Complete Edition, which added XeSS support, was released on April 21, 2022. It is one of the most comprehensive and longest benchmarks. It runs three different screens and takes 21 minutes to complete, so six tests take over two hours. Chernobylite is primarily GPU-bound.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision in October 2024. It uses the IW 9.0 game engine, which was co-developed by Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games.
Call of Duty is generally considered GPU-bound, especially at higher settings and resolutions. However, the CPU also plays a vital role in certain areas, such as managing AI, physics simulations, and overall game logic. Players with higher-end CPUs may notice slightly better performance when the GPU is not the limiting factor.
Because of its lower price and low power consumption, the Intel Arc B580 gets a better overall Pmark score in games than an Nvidia RTX 4060.
As mentioned above, the Pmark compares performance (in games, in this example) versus price and power consumption. With global warming changing the Earth every day, we can no longer be greedy or laissez-faire about energy consumption and the contribution to CO2.
The B580 does show a trend line (from the Arc 750 and comments made by Intel) that could be projected to have Intel introduce a head-to-head competitive GPU/AIB within 2025.
The first production run of Intel Arc B580s sold out almost immediately. As of December 16, Amazon didn’t have any. I couldn’t find it on Newegg, Best Buy, or Micro Center either
It looks like Intel has a winner on their hands.