640K, sorry, 1080p ought to be enough for anybody
Intel filled out its Arc graphics portfolio Tuesday with a $179 card aimed at 1080p gamers on a shoestring budget.
The Arc A580 slots in between the x86 giant’s entry-level A380 and mid-tier A700-series GPUs introduced last year. In fact, a glance over the card’s spec sheet reveals the A580 is essentially a cutdown version of the A750.
Both cards feature 8 GB of GDDR6, good for 512 GB/s of memory bandwidth, but the lower-end card’s Xe graphics and ray-tracing units have been pared back from 28 to 24. In addition to fewer cores, the A580s are also technically clocked slower at 1.7 GHz versus 2.05 GHz. However, Intel notes that all three of its launch partners — Asrock, Sparkle, and Gunnir — have overclocked their cards to 2 GHz.
The curbs do come at the advantage of a 40-watt-lower thermal design power (TDP) at 185 watts compared to the 225 watts demanded by its more powerful siblings.
In terms of performance, Intel claims the card is good for 1080p 60-plus FPS gaming at high-quality settings in a variety of titles.
