I really want to believe Intel's claim that the drivers for its new Arc B580 1440p graphics card suffer from 'no known issues of any kind'

HardwareGraphics CardsI really want to believe Intel’s claim that the drivers for its new Arc B580 1440p graphics card suffer from ‘no known issues of any kind’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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Intel’s Tom Petersen Talks B580, B570, XeSS2 & More | The Full Nerd Special - YouTubeWatch On

Intel’s Tom Petersen Talks B580, B570, XeSS2 & More | The Full Nerd Special - YouTube

Intel’s newArc B580 graphics cardlooks super promising for budget 1440p gaming. But if there’s any doubt over the new GPU, it’s driver quality. After all, the initial driver quality for the first-genIntel Arc A series cards like the A770was pretty diabolical.

But don’t panic. Because Intel says the drivers for the new Battlemage-based B580 board suffer from “no known issues of any kind.” Yup, really.

Specifically, so said Intel’s gaming graphics spokesbod, Tom Petersen,speaking to the Full Nerd podcast. Indeed, Petersen explained how Intel’s “driver quality and compatibility has improved tremendously over the last two years. DX9 is great, DX11 is great, DX12 is great, there’s no caveats at all with this card when we’re launching.”

What’s more, Petersen also said that Intel had taken learnings from the troubled Alchemist drivers cards and built them into the actual hardware for the new Battlemage generation of graphics.

“We’ve taken lessons from that [from Alchemist’s driver issues], and built that into Battlemage. So, Battlemage has lots and lots of things that make the driver writing easier,” Petersen said.

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That sounds reassuring. The only catch is that it also seems to clash with what he said about Intel Arc GPU development generally. As we pointed out earlier today, when talking aboutIntel’s GPU development cycles, Petersen said, “our architects are way ahead of us. They’re already working on the next thing after the next thing.”

He went on to emphasise that the hardware design for the generation of graphics that follows the just-announced B580 Battlemage board is already done. “Our IP called Xe3, that’s pretty much baked. The software teams have a lot of work to do on Xe3, the hardware teams are off onto the next thing,” he said.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyIntel Arc Battlemage launch specificationsRow 0 - Cell 0Intel Arc B570Intel Arc B580Xe cores1820Ray tracing units1820XMX AI engines144160Memory bus160-bit192-bitMemory10 GB12 GBMemory bandwidth380 GB/s456 GB/sCore clockspeed2,500 MHz2,670 MHzBoard power150 W190 WVideo out3x DP2.1, 1x HDMI 2.13x DP2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Intel Arc Battlemage launch specificationsRow 0 - Cell 0Intel Arc B570Intel Arc B580Xe cores1820Ray tracing units1820XMX AI engines144160Memory bus160-bit192-bitMemory10 GB12 GBMemory bandwidth380 GB/s456 GB/sCore clockspeed2,500 MHz2,670 MHzBoard power150 W190 WVideo out3x DP2.1, 1x HDMI 2.13x DP2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1

Apply that timing to Alchemist and you’d assume that when the likes of the A770 was launched, the hardware design from Battlemage was already done. That doesn’t seem to allow much if any time to react to the driver issues that emerged after the A770 launched.

Or maybe Intel knew Alchemist’s drivers were pretty goosed long before it released those cards and had already started putting workarounds into Battlemage. Anyway, high quality drivers will be key to the appeal of the B580 and indeed any Battlemage-based graphics card from Intel. So here’s hoping the B580 delivers on Petersen’s bold claims. We’ll know soon enough.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

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