Intel's budget friendly Arc A580 GPU is available now, but it may be too little too late

Sparkle Arc A580 on a colorful background.
(Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Intel originally announced the Arc 5 graphics card 2 years ago, but it was noticeably absent when the flashier Arc 7 GPUs launched.
  • The Arc A580 launched today at a $179 price point with 3 SKUs from Intel partners GUNNIR, ASRock, and Sparkle.
  • Intel describes the A580 as the 'middle' of the intel Arc graphics card stack, with smooth 1080p gaming performance with support for media and creation capabilities.

It's been a year since the release of the Arc A770 and A750, but it seems that Intel's Alchemist line of GPUs still had some tricks up its sleeve. Today, Intel officially released the Arc A580, a 1080p graphics card that falls well into a budget friendly price point. 

Sparkle Intel Arc A580 ORC OC Edition | $179 at Amazon

Sparkle Intel Arc A580 ORC OC Edition | $179 at Amazon

The Intel Arc A580 offers 1080p gaming at a budget friendly price point, bolstered by XeSS AI-enhanced technology. 

Great for: 1080p gaming, content creation

💰Price check: $179 at Newegg

Intel expects the A580 to fill out the middle of its Arc product stack. The A580 offers up 8 GB of GDDR6 memory paired with a 256-bit memory interface, 24 ray tracing units, and 24 Xe-cores. The card clocks in at 1700 MHz with a TBP of 185W.

According to Intel, the A580 will support variable rate shading and DirectX 12 Ultimate along with ray tracing. Dips in performance with ray tracing on a sub-$200 card seems inevitable, though Intel is pushing its AI-enhanced upscaling tech, Xe Super Sampling, to make up for it.

(Image credit: Intel)

Intel shared performance output from various games on the Intel Arc A580 GPU. At 1080p resolution, Diablo IV reportedly rendered 155 FPS natively, while Spider-man Remastered hit 119 FPS and Baldur's Gate 3 tapped out at 90 FPS. According to Intel's performance reports, the Intel Arc A580 hit 85 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with Ray Tracing and XeSS in use. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Remnant II were at 77 and 73 FPS, respectively, using Intel's AI-enhanced XeSS tech.

Despite the competitive price point, Intel has already undercut the Arc A580's release with its own A750, which is currently available as an Amazon Prime Day deal. It can be difficult to justify the $179 launch price of the A580 when the A750 is currently $189 and offers 4 more Xe cores and 4 more ray tracing units for your extra $10. Windows Central's own Richard Devine loves Intel Arc cards so much he'd almost consider moving to the US just for the Prime Day deal.

Sparkle Intel Arc A750 ORC OC Edition$225now $189.99 at Amazon

Sparkle Intel Arc A750 ORC OC Edition | was $225 now $189.99 at Amazon

The stunning-looking Sparkle version of the Arc A750 is insanely cheap, and with support for ray tracing and up to 1440p gaming, this is a budget gamer's dream. Intel keeps making its GPUs better and better, so don't sleep on it. 

Great for: 1080p and some 1440p gaming, content creation with AV1 encoding

💰Price check: $189.99 at Newegg

If you plan to pick up an A580 despite Intel's efforts to cannibalize it with the A750's sale price, it can be purchased now via 3 SKUs from Intel partners GUNNIR, ASRock, and Sparkle.

Cole Martin
Writer

Cole is the resident Call of Duty know-it-all and indie game enthusiast for Windows Central. She's a lifelong artist with two decades of experience in digital painting, and she will happily talk your ear off about budget pen displays. 

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