Intel is 'committed' to the discrete GPU market, Intel Arc B580 reception has been 'fantastic'

Intel recently launched its first second-gen Battlemage desktop gaming GPU, the Intel Arc B580, which is competitively priced at $249. With stable drivers and software and massive architectural improvements compared to the first-gen Arc cards, the Arc B580 is selling out due to the positive response.

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Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products, said during the company's big CES 2025 keynote that the reception to the B580 has been "nothing short of fantastic." And it's not hard to see why, in our in-depth review of the Intel Arc B580, we praised its GeForce RTX 4060-beating performance - where it also outpaced NVIDIA's mainstream entry in games with raytracing.

Although Intel didn't announce that it would release a more powerful Intel Arc B750 or B770, it will launch the entry-level B570 next week. Intel also reassured everyone that it has no plans to exit the desktop GPU market anytime soon.

"I get this question a lot," Michelle Johnston Holthaus said during the keynote. "We are very committed to the discrete graphics market, and we will continue to make strategic investments in this direction."

And when you factor in laptop and desktop CPUs with integrated Arc graphics and workstation GPUs, Intel is confident that its graphics portfolio is "broader than any of our competitors for laptops to desktops to workstations."

With the success of the Intel Arc B580, which serves a large PC gaming market with few sub-$300 options, Intel might simply focus its efforts here rather than dipping into the mid-range and enthusiast PC gaming bracket dominated by NVIDIA GeForce RTX - and to a lesser extent AMD Radeon.