It’s such an odd time to be an Intel fan. The company continues to struggle with its desktop CPUs but Lunar Lake mobile processors and Arc discrete graphics cards have been largely well received. I’m a big fan of Intel’s push into the affordable GPU market segment, offering gamers excellent value with Battlemage GPUs for less than $250. The latest addition to the family is the Intel Arc B570, a 1080p and 1440p GPU for $219, seriously undercutting some of the offerings from direct competitors. It’s a great time to be a PC gamer as Intel looks to break up the GPU duopoly and here’s why these cards will be a sleeper hit for desktop systems.
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This is the first GPU I’m excited about in years
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More competition and support for the underdog
Rooting for Intel against the big players
Intel was coasting along with its Core desktop CPUs throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s but AMD managed to make a comeback with Ryzen and Zen. Being an underdog, it was great to see the progress made by AMD, effectively flipping the table and causing a storm at Intel with more efficient processors and better offerings across the board. Then there’s 3D V-Cache for gaming and Threadripper for enthusiast applications. It has been quite the ride for AMD over the past decade. The same goes for Intel with its new venture into the discrete graphics card market.
The first-gen launch was met with mixed opinions on whether Intel had the drive to push hard and dig deep in a trench to take on the established players. Its CPU business wasn’t doing particularly great and resources could have been redirected elsewhere, but the company pressed on and we saw Battlemage launch in late 2024. During CES 2025, Intel even went as far as to say it’s committed to the discrete GPU market. The company sees growth and the GPUs we’ve seen so far indicate where most effort will be spent … undercutting AMD and Nvidia in the mid-range.
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Better value compared to AMD and Nvidia
Two modern GPUs for less than $250
Nvidia is in a whole different league when it comes to GPU pricing. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 costs $1,999. Sure, one could argue that it warrants such a high price with everything the GPU offers, but this puts it way out of reach for most PC gamers. AMD only attempted to undercut Nvidia slightly with its RX 7000 series and I bet we’ll see the same again with the delayed RX 90 series. The flagship RX 7900 XTX launched for $999 and although it offers 4K gaming with decent results, it didn’t come close to the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 from Nvidia at the time.
Intel opened up with the more affordable A-series, which offers solid performance at reasonable prices, especially compared to AMD and Nvidia. These new Battlemage GPUs take this further with enhanced internals, better AI-enhanced frame generation, and XeSS. Intel is stepping up its game and going all-out by developing everything surrounding the GPU, including software and additional functionality. This is something AMD failed with earlier FSR versions that were mostly software-based. Next-gen RX 90 series AMD cards should leverage AI, but Intel is already doing so, at less than $250.
The Intel Arc B580 can run Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K and RT Ultra. Now, the performance isn’t smooth and you’ll be bouncing around the 40 FPS range, but that’s incredible for a $250 GPU and shows the power of AI-driven tools such as XeSS. Nvidia is touting similar gains through AI with its RTX 50 series, promising RTX 4090 performance with the RTX 5070.
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Yet another brilliant Intel Arc GPU for 1440p gaming.
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Matured driver support with Battlemage GPUs
Countless games supported with more to come
Software is always a mess at the launch of a new platform. AMD had serious issues with Ryzen processors with firmware and system instability and the same goes for Intel Arc with the original A-series. Battlemage GPUs (the B570 and B580) can capitalize on many software revisions from Intel, offering enhanced support and optimizations for many of the latest PC games. The underlying code is excellent too and Intel Graphics Software is a joy to use for managing the driver and everything else relating to your Intel Arc GPU (and Intel CPU, if present).
Tired of AMD and Nvidia? Give Intel a go.
You won’t be blown away by the best results, but Intel’s Arc GPUs — especially the B-series — are excellent at 1080p and 1440p gaming. 4K is possible with the B580, but I’d hold off to see if Intel will release a B700 series GPU this year to tackle smoother 4K experiences. Software is solid and Intel continuously rolls out new firmware updates for cards, boosting performance with optimizations. XeSS is getting there and surpasses what AMD currently has available for its RX 7000 GPUs, and the pricing makes the GPU market more exciting when you forget the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 exist.
If we’re to change anything within the PC industry, we need to start voting with our wallets. Intel is the underdog for now in the GPU market and supporting the company signals to AMD and Nvidia that we’re not content with how the market is regarding price and marketing.
