Intel Arc B-Series GPUs With Ray-Tracing and AI Engine Launched: Specifications
Intel Arc B-series graphics processing units (GPUs) was launched by the company on Tuesday. Codenamed Battlemage, the new GPUs target price points which are accessible to creators and gamers, enabling them to play popular titles in up to 1440p resolution at over 60 frames per second (fps), according to the US chipmaker. The B-series comprises two GPU models called Intel Arc B580 and Arc B570, with both of them supporting features such as XeSS 2 upscaling technology, frame generation, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
Intel Arc B-Series GPUs Price, Availability
Intel Arc B580 graphics card will be available from add-in board partners such as Acer, ASRock, GUNNIR, ONIX Technology, MAXSUN, and Sparkle starting December 13 from $249 (roughly Rs. 21,000).
Meanwhile, the Intel Arc B570 GPU can be purchased from January 16 starting at $219 (roughly Rs. 19,000).
Intel Arc B-Series GPUs Specifications
Intel says its new Arc B-series GPUs deliver up to 70 percent better performance per Xe-core and up to 50 percent improved performance per watt compared to the previous generation. Both GPUs are built on Intel’s latest Xe2 architecture using TSMC’s N5 fabrication process. They support artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, leveraging the Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) engines.
The company says XeSS 2 incorporates three key technologies: XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation, and Xe Low Latency. XeSS Super Resolution provides AI-powered upscaling with support for over 150 games. Meanwhile, the XeSS Frame Generation leverages AI to add interpolated frames with the help of optical flow and motion vector reprojection. On the other hand, the Xe Low Latency is integrated with the game engine to deliver faster input responses.
Intel’s Arc B580 GPU is equipped with 20 second-generation Xe cores and 20 ray tracing units. According to the company, it has a peak clock speed of 2,670MHz and is equipped with 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a memory bandwidth of 456GB/s. It has a total board power (TBP) of 190W and a peak computational power of 233 trillion operations per second (TOPS).
Meanwhile, the Intel Arc B570 gets 18 Xe cores and 18 ray tracing units. It comes with 10GB of DDR6 memory, a memory bandwidth of 380GB/s, and a peak clock speed of 2,500MHz. Its peak computational power is rated at 203 TOPS with a 150W TBP.
Paired with the Intel Graphics Software, the B-series GPUs provide access to a range of display settings such as colour and scaling modes, and variable refresh rate (VRR) support.