Intel's $249 Arc B580 is the GPU we've begged for since the pandemic
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Powered by the new Xe2 "Battlemage" architecture and a new XeSS 2 frame generation feature, Intel's $249 Arc B580 is FINALLY bringing 1440p gaming to the masses.

If even half of Intel’s claims are true, this could be a big shake up in the midrange market that has been entirely abandoned by both Nvidia and AMD.

    • MudMan@fedia.io
      34·
      16 days ago

      Meh, I ended up with an A770 for a repurposed PC and it’s been pretty solid, especially for the discounted price I got. I get that there were some driver growing pains, but I’m not in a hurry to replace that thing, it was a solid gamble.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        16 days ago

        The A770 was definitely a “fine wine” card from the start. Its raw silicon specs were way stronger than the competition, it just needed to grow into it.

        This ones a bit smaller though…

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          3·
          16 days ago

          Their promo benchmarks have it beating the 770, though, whcih is still a viable card at this price point. It’ll be interesting to see if that pans out on reviews with independent tests.

          Not in the market for one of these, but very curious to see how the 780 fares later. Definitely good to have more midrange options.

          • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            3·
            16 days ago

            The whole goal of battlemage was to increase utilization and cut down on wasted silicon. The overall number of transistors are almost the same. If utilization of those transistors is much more efficient then 25% should easily be doable with all of the other architectural improvements.

            • MudMan@fedia.io
              2·
              16 days ago

              Yeah, I’m not sure where they are with that. Earlier leaks did have a couple of higher specs and the mid-size spec matches some of the 580 numbers. You’d also think they’d have called the 580 “780” for consistency if they weren’t doing any higher end parts. But then, it’s 2024 Intel, so whether they come later or don’t come at all is anybody’s guess.

              I’ll say that it sure looks like there’s room for a bit more juice in the architecture, given the power draw and the specs. The 4070 is the sweet spot GPU for midrange, and it’s a bit too expensive, so I’d be happy to see more solid competition in that range, which is a bit harder than this 4060-ish space.

              • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
                1·
                15 days ago

                o I’d be happy to see more solid competition in that range, which is a bit harder than this 4060-ish space.

                Don’t fall into the trap that every single Internet PC builder falls into.
                Which is wishing for competition in the midrange… not to buy the competition, but just to drive Nvidia prices down so they don’t have to pay as much for their next Nvidia card.

                There’s only one way to break the monopoly and that is to stop giving money to the monopoly.

                • MudMan@fedia.io
                  3·
                  15 days ago

                  Well, I already bought an Intel Arc card on purpose, unironically and not for review, so… your move, nerds.

      • vzq@lemmy.worldEnglish
        55·
        15 days ago

        If I had a dime for every time I heard that exact line.

        At a certain point it’s a fool me once, fool me twice, fool me fourteen times kinda thing.

          • vzq@lemmy.worldEnglish
            22·
            15 days ago

            Honestly, my other option is Apple silicon. I’m not a price sensitive buyer.

              • vzq@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                14 days ago

                🤷‍♀️

                For 800 bucks you get nothing worth having there.

                But the point is that so far, Intel has not produced anything worth having at any price. And for GPUs, their process node troubles will make it really hard for them to compete on price or on performance.

                And that overlooks what Intel is usually super crappy on that NV nailed right out of the gate: developer support.

                • zqps@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                  1·
                  11 days ago

                  I was purely commenting on Apple silicon. As an owner of an M4 MBP I should add. The best chip in the world can still suck as a product if it’s held hostage in this fashion. 800 bucks is what Apple charges for 1.5TB added storage.