Intel Arc A580 GPU

Intel Arc A580 GPU on sale via Amazon (affiliate)

The Intel Arc A580 is a new budget graphics card that aims to offer decent 1080p gaming performance and ray tracing support for under $200. It is part of the Arc Alchemist lineup, which is Intel’s first generation of discrete GPUs for desktops. The Arc A580 features the same G10 GPU as the higher-end Arc A750 and A770, but with four fewer Xe-cores and ray tracing units. It still has a generous 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit memory interface, which gives it an edge over some of its competitors in terms of bandwidth.

The Arc A580 is designed to compete with the Nvidia RTX 3050 and the AMD RX 6600, which are slightly more expensive but also more powerful. According to some reviews, the Arc A580 can outperform the RTX 3050 by around 25% in most games, but falls behind the RX 6600 by a similar margin. The Arc A580 can also handle some ray tracing effects, but at a significant cost to performance and quality. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, the Arc A580 can only manage 23 fps at 1080p with ray tracing on low, compared to 35 fps for the RX 6600 and 31 fps for the RTX 3050.

One of the main advantages of the Arc A580 is its competitive pricing. At $179, it is cheaper than both the RTX 3050 ($199) and the RX 6600 ($229). However, it is also very close in price to the Arc A750 ($190), which offers around 9% more performance and better power efficiency. The Arc A750 also has more headroom for overclocking, as it uses the same GPU as the flagship Arc A770. Therefore, some reviewers have questioned the value proposition of the Arc A580, especially when the GPU market is still affected by shortages and scalping.

Another potential drawback of the Arc A580 is its power consumption and cooling. The Arc A580 has a total board power (TBP) of 185W, which is higher than both the RTX 3050 (170W) and the RX 6600 (160W). This means that it requires a more powerful PSU and generates more heat and noise. The Sparkle Orc OC model of the Arc A580 that was tested by Tom’s Hardware had noisy fans that reached up to 47 dBA under load, which is louder than most other GPUs in this segment. The ASRock Challenger model that was tested by TechPowerUp was quieter, but still reached up to 75°C under load.

The Arc A580 also suffers from some driver issues that affect its stability and compatibility. Some reviewers have reported crashes, glitches, and poor performance in some games, especially older ones that use DirectX 11 or OpenGL. Intel has been working hard to improve its drivers since the launch of the Arc Alchemist series, but it still lags behind Nvidia and AMD in terms of optimization and support. The Arc A580 also lacks some features that are available on its rivals, such as DLSS (Nvidia) or FidelityFX Super Resolution (AMD), which can boost performance and image quality in games.

Overall, the Intel Arc A580 is a decent budget graphics card that can handle most games at 1080p with medium to high settings. It also offers ray tracing support, which is rare for this price range. However, it faces stiff competition from both Nvidia and AMD, as well as from its own sibling, the Arc A750. The Arc A580 has some advantages in terms of memory bandwidth and pricing, but it also has some drawbacks in terms of power consumption, cooling, and drivers. Therefore, it may not be the best choice for everyone who is looking for a cheap GPU upgrade.