Best Cheap GPU · Graphics Cards

Intel Arc B580

Intel's Arc B580 is the most affordable graphics card we'd recommend for modern games. It brings 12GB of VRAM to a price where rivals offer 8GB, and handles 1080p at high settings with ease.

★ Featured in The Best Budget PC Hardware in the UK

Brand: Intel
Best for: Budget 1080p gaming builds
Price range: Budget
Our score: 8.5/10

Check today's price on Amazon.co.uk →

Our take

Intel's Arc B580 is the most affordable graphics card we'd recommend for modern games. Its main selling point is memory: it has 12GB where rivals at the same price have 8GB, which helps a lot in new games with large textures.

Performance

The B580 uses Intel's second-generation Arc architecture, Battlemage, with 20 Xe cores and 12GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus. In published testing it's roughly on par with or slightly ahead of NVIDIA's RTX 4060 at 1080p, and pulls further ahead at 1440p, where its extra memory and bandwidth matter. Expect high settings at 1080p in most current games and playable 1440p in many.

Ray tracing is better than you'd expect at this price. Intel's ray-tracing units are strong for their class, so lighter ray-traced effects are usable at 1080p, especially with upscaling.

XeSS 2

Intel's XeSS upscaler uses AI to rebuild detail, and looks noticeably better than AMD's older FSR 2 and 3 on Arc cards. XeSS 2 adds frame generation and Xe Low Latency, Intel's equivalent of NVIDIA Reflex. Support is growing but is still found in fewer games than DLSS.

What to check before buying

The B580 needs Resizable BAR (sometimes called Smart Access Memory) switched on in your motherboard's settings. Without it, performance drops sharply. Most PCs from 2020 onwards with an AMD Ryzen 3000 or Intel 10th-generation processor or newer support it.

Independent testing also found the B580 loses more performance than rival cards when paired with older or slower processors, such as a Ryzen 5 2600. It's best in a new budget build or alongside a reasonably modern CPU.

Intel's drivers have improved enormously since the first Arc cards, and most new games run well at launch. Some older DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 games still run less consistently than on AMD or NVIDIA cards.

Power and design

The B580 draws up to 190W through a single 8-pin connector, so a decent 550W to 600W power supply is plenty. Intel's own Limited Edition card is a compact dual-fan design, and partner models from ASRock, Sparkle and others are similar.

Who should buy it

Buy the Arc B580 for a budget 1080p gaming PC built around a modern processor, especially if you care more about having enough memory than having the widest game support. If you need the most consistent experience in older games or the broadest upscaler support, the RTX 5060 is the alternative, with less memory.

Key specifications

Architecture	Intel Xe2 (Battlemage)
Xe cores	20
Graphics clock	2,670MHz (Intel Limited Edition)
VRAM	12GB GDDR6
Memory speed	19Gbps
Memory bus	192-bit
Memory bandwidth	456GB/s
Interface	PCI Express 4.0 x8
Total board power	190W
Power connector	1x 8-pin
Outputs	HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 2.1

Strengths and weaknesses

Pros

12GB of VRAM at an entry-level price
Strong 1080p performance
XeSS 2 upscaling and frame generation
Good ray tracing for the money

Cons

Needs Resizable BAR, so best in newer PCs
Some older games run less consistently
Performance drops more with slower CPUs than rival cards

Verdict

Intel's Arc B580 is the most affordable graphics card we'd recommend for modern games. It brings 12GB of VRAM to a price where rivals offer 8GB, and handles 1080p at high settings with ease. It earns our Best Cheap GPU award in our guide to the best graphics cards.

Check price on Amazon →