I find the lack of Battle Mage owners threads disturbing. My Onix Odyssey B580 arrived.

[DAPUNISHER]

Build Specifications -
Ryzen 5600X3D
Thermalright peerless assassin 120 SE
2x16GB DDR4 CL18 3600MTs
ASRock B550M-itx/ac
Silicon Power 1TB gen 4 nvme
Onix Odyssey ARC B580 12GB
CoolerMaster nr200
Windows 11 Pro 24H2
Hisense 4K 144Hz Freesync premium pro gaming TV

It's a well built card with a metal backplate. https://www.newegg.com/asrock-challenger-b580-cl-12go-intel-arc-b580-12gb-gddr6/p/N82E16814987001

It runs quiet, highest temp gaming = mid 60s, but stays in the 50s most of the time. That's with only one case fan. However ambient in the room is 20c. Slightly over 2.5 slots thick. Shortest card I've bought in ages. No angling to get it installed, just plop it right in. Been a while since I only needed 1 8 pin connector too. FYI: Onix is evidently owned by PC Partner Group and is affiliated with the AMD exclusive AIB Sapphire. It also has a 2 year limited parts and labor warranty like most Sapphire cards.

Lets start with what everyone wants to know Will it play Crysis? No, no it won't. At least not acceptably. It is still a hot mess. DXVK just to launch, then terrible hitching and stuttering on the settings I tried. Buy the remake if you want to play on ARC. ARC is simply not a choice for retro gaming IMO.

To whatever extent the 5600X3D is holding it back, and as Spiderman is held up as a worst case scenario; it's a nothingburger IMO. Spiderman Miles Morales at 1440p custom settings XeSS ultra quality FSR frame gen are the settings that suited my taste best for visuals and fps. I have Miles fully maxed out; fast swinging close to busy streets and in big chaotic fights it is flawless. Not a single frame pacing issue. VRAM usage (not allocated) hits 10GB at times if I use XeSS native AA. Ray tracing was more problematic; considering how well my A750LE did with RT, it has to be driver related. It'll get fixed.

Batman Arkham Knight is still broken, just as with Alchemist. DXVK is a must. 4K max except for the grayed out Nv gameworks settings locked 60fps goodness.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down DX 8.1 is another carryover from A series that is still broken. Neither DXVK nor DxWrapper got it running. It crashes during the GPU tests phase.

Tomb Raider 2013 is fixed and runs much better than last gen. It used to need DXVK. Now? 4k max settings is 70-90s fps outdoors and hits my 120 frame cap a lot indoors.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate was another that needed DXVK that is fixed now. 4K custom settings is mostly 60+fps. It has the same issue as the other 2 the ARC cards I've used i.e. long draw distances in many games cause fps drops. Nothing terrible, and VRR smoothed it out.


3DMark shits the bed and won't parse the system data -

I'll add more games I go. Going to try Marvel Midnight Sons next; one of the many free games I picked up last year. No point in sharing experiences with games everyone and their little brother uses. Cyberpunk is a meme at this point.

 

[GerKNG]

i have one since day one and returned it.
once you actually test the GPU properly, compare it outside of the 10 games from the review guide you see the absolute dumpsterfire of a product.
besides the extremely broken software where you can trigger BSODs and it doesn't even apply overclocks until you do it like 5 times in a row, Gaming Benchmarks look like this:
Extreme frametime issues, input lag, stutters and weak performance in anything but selected new DX12 titles.
No Matter which game i tested, no matter if it was my 7800X3D or a high end Raptorlake Chip or Zen 5... it's a mess compared to basically anything else from AMD or NVidia.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I am a single player gamer. No esports or competitive stuff. When a game was a little janky with Alchemist, I used a frame cap and it usually flatlined the frame time graph. With a VRR display Spiderman and Batman are silky smooth.

 

[Dristun]

I'd get one if it was $250 but here it's $400+ so they can keep it. A-series didn't have such distortions in price even though we already were under sanctions here by the time it shipped and at some points (not now though) was the best choice for money.

 

[AusWolf]

And I find the lack of Intel Arc cards available to buy in the UK disturbing.

i have one since day one and returned it.
once you actually test the GPU properly, compare it outside of the 10 games from the review guide you see the absolute dumpsterfire of a product.
besides the extremely broken software where you can trigger BSODs and it doesn't even apply overclocks until you do it like 5 times in a row, Gaming Benchmarks look like this:
Extreme frametime issues, input lag, stutters and weak performance in anything but selected new DX12 titles.
No Matter which game i tested, no matter if it was my 7800X3D or a high end Raptorlake Chip or Zen 5... it's a mess compared to basically anything else from AMD or NVidia.

Yet, the media celebrates it as the saviour of lower midrange graphics, while the 7600 and 4060 have been shat on by basically everyone. Hmph...

 

[TSiAhmat]

i have one since day one and returned it.
once you actually test the GPU properly, compare it outside of the 10 games from the review guide you see the absolute dumpsterfire of a product.
besides the extremely broken software where you can trigger BSODs and it doesn't even apply overclocks until you do it like 5 times in a row, Gaming Benchmarks look like this:
Extreme frametime issues, input lag, stutters and weak performance in anything but selected new DX12 titles.
No Matter which game i tested, no matter if it was my 7800X3D or a high end Raptorlake Chip or Zen 5... it's a mess compared to basically anything else from AMD or NVidia.

ouch! That's sad to hear. Maybe it's a bit more consistent with the 9800x3d... BUT getting a 500 $ cpu so you can play with your 250 $ gpu is not a good scenario.

Yet, the media celebrates it as the saviour of lower midrange graphics, while the 7600 and 4060 have been shat on by basically everyone. Hmph...

Seems like first impressions & reviews do matter if you don't own most of the market share

 

[Assimilator]

i have one since day one and returned it.
once you actually test the GPU properly, compare it outside of the 10 games from the review guide you see the absolute dumpsterfire of a product.
besides the extremely broken software where you can trigger BSODs and it doesn't even apply overclocks until you do it like 5 times in a row, Gaming Benchmarks look like this:
Extreme frametime issues, input lag, stutters and weak performance in anything but selected new DX12 titles.
No Matter which game i tested, no matter if it was my 7800X3D or a high end Raptorlake Chip or Zen 5... it's a mess compared to basically anything else from AMD or NVidia.

Those 1% and 0.2% values are absolutely brutal. Yeah, this is not a good product.

When a game was a little janky with Alchemist, I used a frame cap and it usually flatlined the frame time graph.

You shouldn't have to do that on a product costing $300.

And I find the lack of Intel Arc cards available to buy in the UK disturbing.

Surely you mean Battlemage?

 

[AusWolf]

Surely you mean Battlemage?

I mean all Intel Arc. The A770 and A750 were sold by Ebuyer for a few months, but they disappeared, and the B580 is listed at Overclockers, but it isn't available and there's no ETA on it.

I just checked, the A770 just appeared at Overclockers, and they seem to have a stock of B570 cards. They might get the supply problem sorted by Celestial at this rate.

Edit: I take it back, the A770 is listed, but isn't available, either. They have some A310 and A380, tough.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You shouldn't have to do that on a product costing $300.

That was on a $200 A750. And it is a $260 here in the states. New games play well so far, older games are still a crapshoot. My experiences are based on using ARC for close to 2 years now. My compare and contrast is gen to gen. Seeing which issues are resolved and which are still present. It uses less power and play at higher res than the A750, and the driver overhead seems no worse as of yet.

It isn't as polished as the other 2 IHVs, but I put skin in the game. That's how we will get healthy competition.

I mean all Intel Arc. The A770 and A750 were sold by Ebuyer for a few months, but they disappeared, and the B580 is listed at Overclockers, but it isn't available and there's no ETA on it.

I just checked, the A770 just appeared at Overclockers, and they seem to have a stock of B570 cards. They might get the supply problem sorted by Celestial at this rate.

Here in the states the B580 is so popular the only way to get the LE is to buy it as a combo on Newegg. Same trick they pulled during the pandemic. The A570 can be had readily. The Maxsun and Gunnir cards are overpriced so they collect dust.

 

[Assimilator]

I mean all Intel Arc.

Derp, because "Arc" and "Alchemist" start with the same letter I equate them by accident when I'm not reading carefully.

The A770 and A750 were sold by Ebuyer for a few months, but they disappeared, and the B580 is listed at Overclockers, but it isn't available and there's no ETA on it.

I just checked, the A770 just appeared at Overclockers, and they seem to have a stock of B570 cards. They might get the supply problem sorted by Celestial at this rate.

Edit: I take it back, the A770 is listed, but isn't available, either. They have some A310 and A380, tough.

Yup, more than 1.5 months after its supposed launch there is no B580 stock available to buy right now in the UK. There are various preorders, but nobody is willing to say when those will land. I'm starting to wonder if there was a hardware defect uncovered really late and they are having to respin the silicon. Either way, it's a sad story.

As for Alchemist I literally don't know what Intel's strategy is or was regarding stock levels, except that they seem to be following the same (bad) one for Battlemage.

 

[AusWolf]

Derp, because "Arc" and "Alchemist" start with the same letter I equate them by accident when I'm not reading carefully.

Fair enough. I did mean all Arc cards of both generations.

Yup, more than 1.5 months after its supposed launch there is no B580 stock available to buy right now in the UK. There are various preorders, but nobody is willing to say when those will land. I'm starting to wonder if there was a hardware defect uncovered really late and they are having to respin the silicon. Either way, it's a sad story.

As for Alchemist I literally don't know what Intel's strategy is or was regarding stock levels, except that they seem to be following the same (bad) one for Battlemage.

It was even worse with Alchemist. Those cards weren't available for months after release, and were only sold by Ebuyer for a short time with limited stock. There's either a supply issue at Intel, or UK stores are just too scared to order any in case nobody buys them.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Seems like most countries other than the U.S. got shafted on stock. Even all of the combos are sold out now. Stock hits all the time, and sells through immediately. Guy on another forum snagged the LE as they came in stock today at B&H Photo.

. There's either a supply issue at Intel, or UK stores are just too scared to order any in case nobody buys them.

That's a good guess. I saw heaps of OEM systems featuring Alchemist sold as refurbs on Ebay. System had not even been out long. Returned due to ARC issues is my hot take.

Almost all of the A series is sold out here. I think there is little doubt production has ceased as they move on to B series. Some have been OOS for months. The ASRock low profile A380 sold crazy good. Slot powered with excellent media features made it a hit. I suspect when shipment numbers are available, you will be surprised how well the B580 is selling.

 

[_JP_]

Here, the B580 is just slightly cheaper than the A770. Finding them is not that hard, but there's only ASRock and Sparkle cards aplenty.
Still, the price is so close to the Radeon 7600 XT, that costs 320~440€, that nobody seriously considers the Intel cards (that range 280~380€). Like @AusWolf was saying, supposed to be the mid-range savior and fails at it just by the pricing itself.

(granted we do have 23% VAT here, but I wasn't expecting to see pricing that resembles Russia's with sanctions )

EDIT: My hope was that the B580 would actually launch at the price of the A580, around 230~250€, which it would then disrupt the market completely. C'mon within 5% performance difference of the A770 and 100€ less? No brainer.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Here, the B580 is just slightly cheaper than the A770. Finding them is not that hard, but there's only ASRock and Sparkle cards aplenty.
Still, the price is so close to the Radeon 7600 XT, that costs 320~440€, that nobody seriously considers the Intel cards (that range 280~380€). Like @AusWolf was saying, supposed to be the mid-range savior and fails at it just by the pricing itself.

(granted we do have 23% VAT here, but I wasn't expecting to see pricing that resembles Russia's with sanctions )

Yup, common complain on reddit.

My card shipped from the Newegg warehouse in Ontario. Unusual as my orders always come from New Jersey or Cali.

 

[_JP_]

I get that development, better uArch and other factors meant that the B580 could not be cheaper, but I think especially because it would undercut the A770 completely and then retailers would have a problem regarding that stock. Granted, Intel could just pay them the difference of the investment (which is not unheard of in the GPU market) to purge stock and retailers get to do a "big promotion" on A770 cards.
One thing that I'm not budging is what I've said in another thread, the B570 needs to be at 199€ to really hook the mid-range market and the B580, by extension, cannot be much more expensive...so 230~250€.
And this is saying it nicely, for Intel to be competitive in said market, given that in sheer performance it is not necessarily the case.

Under this "new normal" of inflation, at the 200€ mark I would be ok with drivers being buggy or delivering dodgy performance at anything above 60fps for some titles, but behaving normally with most of what's out there. At 400€ or above (where I expect a B750/770/790 to land), I expect some instability at extreme cases, like +144fps WUHD scenarios or VR, but tankers of performance in any other case. AMD and nVidia are delivering on that, so it's not like Intel has an escape scenario to be successful.

 

[Assimilator]

I get that development, better uArch and other factors meant that the B580 could not be cheaper, but I think especially because it would undercut the A770 completely and then retailers would have a problem regarding that stock. Granted, Intel could just pay them the difference of the investment (which is not unheard of in the GPU market) to purge stock and retailers get to do a "big promotion" on A770 cards.
One thing that I'm not budging is what I've said in another thread, the B570 needs to be at 199€ to really hook the mid-range market and the B580, by extension, cannot be much more expensive...so 230~250€.
And this is saying it nicely, for Intel to be competitive in said market, given that in sheer performance it is not necessarily the case.

Under this "new normal" of inflation, at the 200€ mark I would be ok with drivers being buggy or delivering dodgy performance at anything above 60fps for some titles, but behaving normally with most of what's out there. At 400€ or above (where I expect a B750/770/790 to land), I expect some instability at extreme cases, like +144fps WUHD scenarios or VR, but tankers of performance in any other case. AMD and nVidia are delivering on that, so it's not like Intel has an escape scenario to be successful.

Intel is too proud to subsidise its GPUs to gain marketshare, because it's never been in the position of having a product that it needs to do that for. That's why, apart from the peaks it gets when it releases a new Arc lineup, their GPU marketshare hasn't gained appreciably. With this "strategy" of clown shoes it never will, so Arc will never have the opportunity to prove itself, and Intel will ultimately kill it because it isn't achieving what they wanted - even though they never enabled it to do so. Bad management kills good products.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I mean all Intel Arc. The A770 and A750 were sold by Ebuyer for a few months, but they disappeared, and the B580 is listed at Overclockers, but it isn't available and there's no ETA on it.

I just checked, the A770 just appeared at Overclockers, and they seem to have a stock of B570 cards. They might get the supply problem sorted by Celestial at this rate.

Edit: I take it back, the A770 is listed, but isn't available, either. They have some A310 and A380, tough.

Here you go for starters ..................... SPARKLE Intel Arc B580 TITAN 12GB OC GPU - SB580T-12GOC | CCL

 

[Assimilator]

Here you go for starters ..................... SPARKLE Intel Arc B580 TITAN 12GB OC GPU - SB580T-12GOC | CCL

Available for delivery from Tuesday 28th January

Then you look at the 4060s that start at £260 on that same site and available now, which according to TPU's review are at least 20% faster in every resolution in both RT and raster, and ask yourself "why would I buy A580 when I could buy RTX 4060?", and you don't really have a good answer. are at worst 20% slower at 4K than Intel's offering and of course, in stock.

And before the crying children as "but why did you go for RTX 4060 instead of 7600/XT"... because 7600 XT is over the psychological £300 mark, and the plain-jane 7600 is marginally cheaper than 4060 but significantly slower.

 

[AusWolf]

Then you look at the 4060s that start at £260 on that same site and available now, which according to TPU's review are at least 20% faster in every resolution in both RT and raster, and ask yourself "why would I buy A580 when I could buy RTX 4060?", and you don't really have a good answer.

And before the crying children as "but why did you go for RTX 4060 instead of 7600/XT"... because 7600 XT is over the psychological £300 mark, and the plain-jane 7600 is marginally cheaper than 4060 but significantly slower.

Huh?

(average FPS graph)

At this price range, with such small differences, I'd just get the cheapest one available in my area.

Here you go for starters ..................... SPARKLE Intel Arc B580 TITAN 12GB OC GPU - SB580T-12GOC | CCL

Nice. Shame that it's not really worth the price.

 

[Chrispy_]

I find the lack of Battle Mage owners threads disturbing. My Onix Odyssey B580 arrived.​

I'd get one if it was $250 but here it's $400+ so they can keep it.

And I find the lack of Intel Arc cards available to buy in the UK disturbing.

Availability here was bad. Late to arrive, higher than MSRP, and still not great value even when you find one in stock now.

$500 MSRP almost always translates to £480 in the UK after tax is included, so when the $250 Arc B580 should be coming in at £240, seeing them in stock for significantly more than an RTX 4060 is underwhelming.

 

[Assimilator]

Huh?
View attachment 381455
(average FPS graph)

Relative performance, not average FPS.

 

[AusWolf]

Relative performance, not average FPS.

I see exactly the same thing there - no big difference.

 

[Assimilator]

I see exactly the same thing there - no big difference.
View attachment 381472

Oh FFS I'm literally retarded, I was looking at 4060 Ti instead of plain 4060. Yet another example of why I hate arbitrary suffixes, why the hell couldn't 4065 be a thing instead of 4060 Ti.

Original post corrected, thank you for crosschecking me.

 

[AusWolf]

Oh FFS I'm literally retarded, I was looking at 4060 Ti instead of plain 4060. Yet another example of why I hate arbitrary suffixes, why the hell couldn't 4065 be a thing instead of 4060 Ti.

Ah. It happens.

I completely agree with that! There's way too many inexplicable zeros in modern GPU model names.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Bad management kills good products.

That is the sword of Damocles for the ARC dGPU crew. All of the layoffs and retirements buyouts have not helped either. They made good progress though. My wife used my A750 as a daily driver for 6 months with zero issues. That alone was a big milestone. Go back and look at day one reviews of the A380 from China, ugly ugly stuff. When I first installed Alchemist things were still fairly janky, but the progress over the course of ownership has been praiseworthy.

They seem to have chosen the U.S. under $300 market as the battleground this generation. And I think they are gaining here. Every card is a lost sale for teams red and green. That is going to force a reaction from both, which is a win for low budget gamers. With the trend of new games leaving GTX 10 series and RDNA behind. Having a good entry level new GPU market would be welcomed. It's been a long time since we had one.