Intel Arc B570 Vs. B580: Value, Specs, And Real-World Gaming Performance

Evaluating real-world performance, memory bandwidth trade-offs, and driver efficiency to help you choose the ideal budget GPU

Hardware by Katmin on Jun 04, 2025

Intel’s Arc B570 represents the latest addition to the second-generation Battle Mage GPU lineup. Positioned as a less expensive alternative to the B580, it challenges current mid-range products and challenges the way budget cards are assessed by striking a balance between performance and cost reductions.

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Release Timeline and Background

A driver update on January 3 corresponded with the main industry displays, and the Arc B570 arrived shortly after. Although the flurry of subsequent GPU reviews delayed coverage, that extra time provided valuable perspective.

Following my earlier assessment of the B580, I began questioning the assumptions behind budget GPU evaluations and how real-world systems reveal hidden performance factors.

Hardware Specifications

At its core, the B570 shares the same Battle Mage G21-S architecture as the B580 but with reduced resources. Memory capacity drops from 12 GB to 10 GB of GDDR6, and the 192-bit memory bus narrows to 160 bits, delivering roughly 83% of the B580’s bandwidth. Compute unit count decreases from 20 to 18, while AI engine (XMX) units fall from 160 to 144.

Clock speeds also dip by about 6%, contributing to an overall performance target of around 89% of the B580, yet at a lower price point of $220.

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Design and Features

Physically, the B570 retains the dual-fan, two-slot design and blower-style cooling of its sibling. You’ll find the same four video outputs—three DisplayPort 2.1 ports supporting up to 7680 × 4320 at 60 Hz and one HDMI 2.

1a port handling up to 120 Hz. A single 8-pin PCIe power connector supplies additional juice. While the hardware package appears strong, driver maturity remains crucial to achieving consistent frame times and reliability.

Synthetic and Rasterization Benchmarks

In rasterized tests such as Alan Wake 2 and Forza Horizon 5 at native 1080p, the B570 generally delivers around 89% of its sibling’s performance while consuming similar power. Compared against alternatives:

The competing card often edges the B580 slightly in raw efficiency, but both Intel cards operate at around 3.4 J/frame, which is behind the leader at 2.7 J/frame.Against AMD’s RX 7600, the B570 outpaces by double-digit margins in many titles despite lower efficiency. Against NVIDIA’s similarly priced model, the B570 frequently holds its own or improves upon older-generation competitors.

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Real-World Ray Tracing Performance

With full ray tracing enabled, the B570 typically achieves about 87% of B580 frame rates while drawing 89% of the power. In demanding titles like Avatar Frontiers of Pandora and Dying Light 2, it comfortably beats the RX 7600 by 19–28 percentage points, though it still trails the most efficient NVIDIA solution.

In Alan Wake 2’s low-ray-trace mode at 1080p, the B570 sits roughly 15% behind the B580 yet remains competitive, illustrating solid generational gains over Alchemist predecessors.

Driver Overhead in Budget Systems

A critical insight emerged when testing the B570 on a more modest platform—a PCIe 3.0 motherboard paired with a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU. Under Cyberpunk 2077 at console-equivalent settings, the B570 retained only 39% of its high-end-system performance, while the rival card lost about half its performance.

Starfield exposed even larger gaps: with the same CPU, the competitor doubled the B570’s frame rate. These results underscore Intel’s driver overhead and bandwidth dependencies, which you’ll need to consider if pairing with entry-level hardware.

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Rethinking Budget GPU Reviews

Traditionally, budget GPUs are benchmarked alongside top-tier CPUs to isolate the potential of the GPU. However, that approach overlooks the reality that you’ll often pair a $220 card with a more affordable system.

My tests demonstrate that Arc’s software stack and PCIe 3.0 limitations can severely hamper performance, suggesting a need for reviews that reflect actual budget configurations rather than idealized test benches.

Key-Takeaways

The Intel Arc B570 offers an impressive value proposition at $220, with performance and features that outshine many rivals in both raster and ray-traced workloads. Yet driver efficiency and PCIe dependencies mean you’ll see variable results on lower-end systems.

If you plan to build or upgrade a budget rig, consider a capable CPU and PCIe 4.0 support to maximize the B570’s potential. In that case, otherwise, you may encounter unexpected bottlenecks that undermine its real-world performance.

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