Maxsun Intel Arc B580 iCraft 12 GB Graphics Card Review – Stunning, Runs Cool, Perfect For Gamers At The Right Price

Conclusion - Stylish Cooling & Recommended (At The Right Price)

Ever since the launch of the Intel Arc B-Series, the B580 and B570 graphics cards have been positioned strongly in the mainstream segment. The Intel Arc B580 starts at $249 US, which makes it a very strong product for gamers.

Looking at the performance figures, the Intel Arc B580 graphics card competes well against the products it is designed to tackle, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, and even outperforms the Arc A770 16 GB & RTX 5060 8 GB graphics cards in some titles. These are due to the architectural optimizations and fixes enabled in the Battlemage Xe2 architecture. The graphics card is designed to be a 1080p gaming solution, but also does well at 1440p thanks to its 12 GB VRAM. We expect the Arc B580 to outperform the recently launched RTX 5050.

In terms of design, the Arc B580 iCraft is a solid design that gives off a very premium touch in this price category. Maxsun and Intel have been closely collaborating on new designs under the Arc series, one such design is the dual Arc Pro B60, which is currently the only "official" card to pack two BMG-G21 GPU dies. Maxsun's expertise in creating unique designs for gamers is also clearly shown with its iCraft series. The card runs cool, and the RGB display is very nice.

The biggest update that Battlemage brings with it is a stronger software suite and driver support. We encountered no major issues with the Arc B580 throughout our testing. The GPU software ran great, and Intel should be applauded for its commitment to the software side of the Arc family. In addition to that, the Battlemage family brings with it XeSS2 support with technologies such as frame generation and low-latency modes, which will soon be enabled in a range of AAA games. It's not only discrete GPUs but the integrated Xe2 family that will take advantage of these features & that's a big plus for PC gamers and handheld/mobility users.

Pricing-wise, the Intel Arc B580 at $249 US is competitive enough to become the next budget king. No other card at this price point offers the same level of performance coupled with 12 GB of VRAM. It has more VRAM than the RTX 5060, and often beats it. Plus, driver support from Intel is once again great & continues to get better.

The things we loved about the Intel Arc B580 graphics card:

• Fantastic Value
• Great Custom Design
• 12 GB VRAM
• Great Performance at 1080p, and even does well at 1440p
• XeSS2 support with frame-gen & low-latency mode
• HDMI 2.1 & DP 2.1 Support
• Driver & software support have significantly improved
• 3 GHz+ OC & fan curve support is great

Things that we would have liked to see:

• Idle & average power could be lower
• More games with XeSS2 support

The main issue for the Arc B580 at the moment is availability and pricing. While Maxsun has the Intel Arc B580 iCraft priced at $275, we were unable to find it anywhere close to that. Newegg and Amazon have the card "Out of Stock", and the latest price is listed at $371, which is about $100 US more expensive, and at that price point, the B580 iCraft or any B580 will be hard to justify. Keeping up with demand has been a problem for Intel for its Arc lineup, and with the Pro series, it looks like more dies will be allocated to those products than the gaming lineup, given the AI demand. At $275 US, I can recommend the Arc B580 iCraft from Maxsun, but anything above that, especially the $350 US+ price, makes solutions from competitors such as the RTX 5060 Ti or the RX 9060 XT a better option.

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