Intel confirms Arc desktop GPU launch on December 3, while Battlemage B570 leak suggests it could be a dream budget graphics card
- Intel has announced an Arc launch event on December 3
- Teaser video clearly shows a desktop GPU that should be Battlemage
- B570 GPU spec leak suggests what to expect from the B580’s sibling
Intel has officially confirmed that there’s a big Arc GPU announcement tomorrow, December 3, which should definitely be Battlemage as rumors have already suggested – and we’ve also discovered some leaked specs for the alleged Arc B570 graphics card.
First, let’s take a look at Intel’s reveal that appeared on X, with Team Blue noting that it has “big graphics news” and offering a video that gives us more clues as to what this is.
We have big graphic news 👀… pic.twitter.com/sylnOZogMqNovember 30, 2024
The video clip doesn’t directly mention Intel Battlemage, but this is more of a teaser telling us that an Intel Arc-related announcement is coming on December 3. Since we see a desktop graphics card from different angles in the video, the revelation is clearly for a desktop product – which can only be Battlemage.
There’s no way a new Alchemist board could be in the works, and anyway, as mentioned, this lines up with the many rumors that a Battlemage reveal is coming on December 3. Given the weight of that speculation, Intel may have felt the same way. period, it might as well (almost) confirm what’s happening this week.
The rumor mill assumes we’ll see new Battlemage B580 and B570 graphics cards, and we’ve already seen the leaked specs for the B580. The B570 has remained a mystery until now, spec-wise, but as always, treat this new leak with a lot of skepticism.
The leak comes via a tip from a reader of VideoCardz (that one too spotted the Intel tweet above) and if correct, the B570 will work with 18 Xe2 cores and 10 GB of VRAM (GDDR6) along with a 160-bit memory bus. The boost clock will reach 2.6 GHz.
That’s according to a leaked product description for ASRock’s Arc B570 Challenger OC, which looks authentic enough, but as mentioned here could be liberally seasoned.
Analysis: B500 Series Specifications – with caveats
So, how does that B570 spec compare to the B580, taking into account all the usual caveats about both being rumored specs at this point.
In theory, the B580 will run with 20 Xe2 cores, so the B570 will drop a few cores, and the B580 will presumably have 12GB of VRAM, so the B570 will drop 2GB. Staying with that theme, the B570 will also be 200MHz slower due to its boost clock, and will have a smaller amount of memory bandwidth, down almost 17%.
That obviously makes for a slightly less powerful GPU, but the lower B500 series model shouldn’t stray far from the B580’s performance.
What we hope the B570 will offer is a significantly more affordable alternative, if the price rumors about the B580 are true – namely that it could end up around $250 in the US (and commensurately elsewhere of course). However, if the B570 can come in under $200 with 10GB of VRAM – while Nvidia is still pushing for 8GB on competing models in this category – Intel could have a budget winner on its hands.
And more importantly, PC gamers could have a budget GPU winner on their hands too – but there’s still a way to go when it comes to the accuracy of these leaks and revealing the high price tag.