Intel's new Arc B580 is superfast, but how does it compare to the wildly popular Nvidia RTX 4060? I found out.

Intel's first Battlemage GPU, the Arc B580, will be here before Xmas and it'll be 10% faster and $50 cheaper than the GeForce RTX 4060.

Early Intel Arc B580 benchmarks suggest the upcoming graphics card outruns the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 in 3DMark Time Spy by over 30%.

Nvidia's cheapest current-gen card with more than 8GB of RAM is the 16GB version of the 4060 Ti (roughly $450 as of this writing), while AMD offers a 16GB version of the less-powerful RX 7600 XT for around $320. The Intel cards offer less RAM than this but undercut them significantly on price while still providing more than 8GB.

At a glance Expert's Rating Pros ・Fast frame rates at high visual quality settings ・12GB memory and bandwidth for 1440p gaming ・Low, low $249 price ・Superb ray tracing for price class (beats RTX 4060) ・Bugs and performance oddities from 1st-gen Arc GPUs have been fixed ・Uses standard 8-pin power connector ・XeSS in over 150 games ・Well-designed,

Intel's new Arc B580 reigns as the budget-mainstream GPU right now, with an official starting MSRP of just $249. Partner cards cost more, and the card is selling quickly, but supplies should improve in the coming days.