Intel Battlemage GPU spotted in benchmark – relax, PC gamers, there’s no need to panic over the leaked B580 core count
- Intel’s Arc B580 GPU has been leaked via a Geekbench result
- The score itself is meaningless, but it does provide important specifications
- The B580’s core count could be lower than the A580’s, but other specs could compensate for that
Intel’s Battlemage graphics cards will likely launch in December if the rumors are true, and we have another nugget that suggests that: a glimpse at the B580’s alleged specs.
That Arc Battlemage B580 GPU will reportedly be the first of Intel’s 2nd generation desktop graphics cards to hit the market, and VideoCardz noticed that Tomasz Gawroński marked a Geekbench result on X.
Intel g21 battlemage 20core (160cu) at 2850 mhz + 285k tested in geekbench. https://t.co/UJPG9iCjVV pic.twitter.com/G0emVzggN3November 26, 2024
The benchmark result itself is pretty meaningless – it’s a sample of a B580 (in theory we should add – sprinkle spices liberally), and the OpenCL score is hardly a useful benchmark for a gaming graphics card anyway.
The key point here is the specs shown for the B580, which will apparently be loaded with 12GB of VRAM and a boost clock of up to 2.85GHz. We also learn that this GPU has 160 Compute Units (CUs).
As VideoCardz notes, this should mean the B580 has 20 Xe2 cores (with 8 CUs per core in theory).
It’s also worth noting that the video memory specs match an earlier leak about an ASRock B580 graphics card, which was also shown at 12GB. And at 2.8 GHz, the previous clock speed was also in the same range as this new leak.
Analysis: Don’t panic about these specs
So how do these specs seem to be taking shape? There is some consternation among some commenting online about the drop in core count compared to the existing Arc A580 GPU – as the A580 has 24 cores versus 20 here.
However, with these specifications there is give and take. If the core count is dropped to 20 (and it may not), these are still next-generation Xe2 cores that benefit from a new, faster architecture. Plus, the boost clock is much faster than the A580 (which is officially clocked at 1.7GHz, although third-party models were running at around 2GHz – but 2.8GHz is a big jump over that).
In addition, here you have a more comfortable equipment of VRAM with 12 GB versus 8 GB (although, if the rumors are true, the memory bandwidth will be a little tighter on the B580 versus the A580).
This is all speculation, and we should keep two points in mind here. First, the B580 will be significantly faster than the A580 no matter what. Intel would look foolish if it were otherwise, obviously enough. And second, no matter where the specs end up, Intel can still attack at the low end of the GPU market by pricing the B580 to undercut AMD and Nvidia’s budget offerings.
With all these leaks surrounding Battlemage in the last two weeks, it seems pretty certain that we’ll see the B580 revealed next month – but clearly we can’t be sure of that (and even if it’s Intel’s intention at the moment is, a last minute delay factor can still interfere).
It makes sense that Intel would want to be in the desktop GPU spotlight for a while before AMD and Nvidia bring out their big guns (or mid-range artillery, perhaps, in the case of RDNA 4) at CES 2025 in January, as the vine endures. .