Abstract:
Intel's Arc B580 graphics card may be discontinued soon as the company prioritizes the development of more profitable workstation and AI inference graphics cards. This rumor echoes recent reports that Nvidia will shift production lines of GB202 chips away from the RTX 5090, although neither company has confirmed this news.
The Intel Arc B580 graphics card may become the latest consumer graphics card to be discontinued as profits from professional AI hardware grow. The latest rumors suggest that Intel is considering discontinuing its flagship gaming GPU Battlemage and instead prioritizing the development of more profitable workstation products. This news coincides with recent reports that Nvidia will move the GB202 chip away from the GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card.
According to whistleblower Haze (@Haze2K1), Intel may list Arc B580 as a discontinued product and transfer resources to the Arc Pro series. The tipster specifically mentioned the Arc Pro B50 and claimed that Intel's professional-grade GPUs are in strong demand in the field of artificial intelligence reasoning. The Arc B580 uses the Intel BMG-G21 chip, which is also used in professional-grade products such as the Arc Pro B50 and B60. The consumer B580 is equipped with 20 Xe cores and 12GB GDDR6 video memory, while the B60 is equipped with 20 Xe cores and 24GB of video memory. Some manufacturers (such as Maxsun and Sparkle) also provide versions with up to 48GB of video memory.
A very similar situation occurred at NVIDIA. As we previously reported, multiple sources claim that Nvidia is moving the GB202 GPU originally intended for the GeForce RTX 5090 to the more profitable RTX Pro graphics card. Subsequently, there were reports that a certain board partner was unable to even pre-order the RTX 5090 kit, which seemed to confirm the above rumors. However, Nvidia insists that the RTX 5090 has not been discontinued and said it will continue to ship.
Intel Arc B580 graphics card is becoming increasingly difficult to buy at full price. This graphics card will be available in December 2024, priced at US$249, but the price has recently risen to about US$330 on Newegg, and the price of some models in the UK has climbed to around £500.
To review, Intel originally positioned the Arc B580 as a graphics card priced under $300 with performance comparable to the RTX xx60-xx70, making it one of the few cost-effective options on the market. Unfortunately, even before the artificial intelligence craze hit the market, the supply of this graphics card has been very tight.
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