Fresh-faced from the reveal of its first B Series graphics cards, Intel seems optimistic about the launch of Arc B580 and B570. Part of the reason for its chipper demeanour is undoubtedly in part thanks to the company’s increased confidence in its drive software. In fact, it seems that the issues faced by its predecessor shouldn’t happen rear their ugly heads again this time around.
Speaking to PC World, Intel’s Tom Petersen said that the Blue Team has invested massive resources into addressing driver issues and bugs. Adding that from the release of first-gen Arc graphics cards, the team has published more than 50 driver updates that have all gone through rigorous quality assurance cycles. Tom also indicated that Intel has increased game coverage and validation by 2.5x to deliver a quality experience to the end user.
Thanks to its focus on the software side, plus the experience collected from the launch of Arc A Series GPUs, Intel is confident that the driver issues seen on Alchemist shouldn’t repeat. As a reminder, the prior graphics card launch was wrought with bugs and performance issues aplenty. Despite efforts to address these problems, the damage done is plain to see but this could be all about to change.
“It’s only through testing and architecture and hard work that we can get our driver quality where it needs to be. But I feel very comfortable that we are over that hump.” Said Tom. Adding that he expects hundreds of thousands of users to choose a Battlemage card.
With the software side presumably in a much better place, there’s every chance these cards could find an audience. Hopefully, the Battlemage lineup will succeed where Alchemist failed in rebuilding the sub $250 graphics card market.
Intel Arc B580 launches December 13, starting at $249. We’ll be able to verify Petersen’s claims and those of the wider company soon. So, stay tuned for our review and coverage.
lowering entry to mid-range performance instead of chasing AMD and Nvidia up the price ladder. Currently, things seem to be going that way with the first Arc B580 and B570 cards set to retail for $249 and $219 MSRP respectively.
