Intel ARC A580 8GB Graphics Card Review Featuring Sparkle Orc

Not everyone has huge amounts of money to blow on their shiny new system or GPU, and while we’d all love to have an RTX 4090 inside our build, we sometimes have to be a bit more humble and look at the modest sub $200 market which is where Intel firmly believe they have some strong contenders including what we’re looking at today, the A580. Priced at just $180, how does it stack up against the likes of AMD and NVIDIA? So, the A580, name sound familiar? It should because you may remember the name from quite some time ago when Intel first showed the roadmap, and consumers were left thinking that Team Blue had completely ditched the A580 from the lineup until it suddenly started appearing in the last week at certain retail stores. So what does the A580 bring to the table? Well firstly, you’ll be surprised as to what models of A580 you’ll actually be able to buy. From our own understanding, unlike the Intel branded and Acer models you’ve seen in the past, the A580 will only be available in ASRock and Sparkle branded versions and that’s it. In terms of specs, both the ASRock Challenger OC and Sparkle Orc come in identically with 24 Xe-Cores, 24 Ray Tracing units, a clock speed of 1700MHz, 8GB of GDDR6 and a somewhat modest TDP of 185W. Now while there isn’t much context for these figures, there’s also not much use comparing them to what AMD and NVIDIA have, because it doesn’t really show much, though with 8GB of memory on a 256-bit memory bus, Intel are already off to a good start when compared to the likes of the RX 7600, RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti, all with their somewhat inferior 128-bit memory bus. Intel ARC A580 Now when we get sent launch day cards like this one, with it, we get given a driver and some handy reviewer guide material. It gives us the specs, the general rundown on the architecture, and how it compares in their own testing against other cards on the market, and with this, Intel pitted the new A580 against the RTX 3050 from NVIDIA and RX 6600 from AMD, so that’s what we’ll be putting our focus on today, while also including a few other cards to see where it’s positioned. What makes this most interesting is that the RX 6600 at $209, the RTX 3050 at $229 and even the RX 7600 which is AMD’s lowest-end current-gen part at $239 mean that all of the competition come in more expensive than the newest A580 from Intel, so maybe they are trying to be quite aggressive with their positioning. Features 6 Render Slices optimized for DirectX* 12 Ultimate 24 Xe-cores with Intel® XMX 24 Ray Tracing Units 256-bit memory bus Video If you want to see more of the card, you can check out our dedicated video review below. Packaging & Accessories The front of the box is pretty typical of what we've seen in the past from Sparkle, sporting a very blue Intel theme with ArC branding in the bottom right and the key features of the architecture in the bottom left. The rear of the box gives us some information on the dual fan design, cooling and LED features along with the IO connectors for your display outputs. A Closer Look So before we get into the benchmarks, let’s talk about the card. It’s called the Sparkle ARC A580 Orc OC Edition, and though we can’t see that there’s a non-OC version and no “MSRP” card as such, it may confuse gamers a little bit. In typical Sparkle/Intel fashion, the card is blue with a blue PCB, very much like we saw on the other Sparkle cards we looked at not too long ago. It sports a dual fan cooler and is quite simplistic in its design. Coming in at 223mm long, 99mm high and 44mm thick means it will only take up 2 slots inside your case and with a weight of just 838 grams, it’s pretty typical for what you’d expect a 1080p focussed GPU to be with the only, let’s say stand our feature being the Sparkle logo which by default lights up a kind of greeny yellow. The card features a full backplate which is nice to see on a card at this price and should help with keeping heat under control. In terms of power, it has two 8-pin power connectors, so no 12VHPWR here, and of course, the connectors are blue to match. Also, in terms of display outputs, there’s 3 DisplayPort connectors and a single HDMI which should be more than enough for anyone wanting to utilise multi-monitor setups. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (GPU) Motherboard ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus HeroBIOS Version 1720 Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K Review Buy Now GPU Changes Per Review RAM Patriot Viper Venom 32GB (2x16GB) 6200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers AMD Graphics: 22.10.1NVIDIA Graphics: 521.90 Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. A Plague Tale: Requiem Assassin's Creed Valhalla Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Control Cyberpunk 2077 Death Stranding Doom Eternal Dying Light 2 F1 22 Far Cry 6 Hogwarts Legacy Horizon Zero Dawn Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Watch Dogs: Legion Resolutions 1080 (Full HD) 1440 4K Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw, we now run F1 22 for an hour loop and measure power draw at the end of the loop for the most accurate measurement that represents real-world gameplay experience. Temperatures We take temperature readings after the same hour long F1 22 loop with no other background programs running, again to simulate a real-world gaming experience. A Plague Tale: Requiem Far across the sea, an island calls… Embark on a heartrending journey into a brutal, breathtaking world twisted by supernatural forces. After escaping their devastated homeland, Amicia and Hugo travel far south, to new regions and vibrant cities. There, they attempt to start a new life and control Hugo’s curse. But, when Hugo’s powers reawaken, death and destruction return in a flood of devouring rats. Forced to flee once more, the siblings place their hopes in a prophesized island that may hold the key to saving Hugo. Discover the cost of saving those you love in a desperate struggle for survival. Strike from the shadows or unleash hell, overcoming foes and challenges with a variety of weapons, tools and unearthly powers. Available now on Steam. So kicking things off with A Plague Tale: Requiem on the Ultra preset, and already, the A580 is matching the performance of the RX 6600, and pushing 26% ahead of the RTX 3050. While the framerate was below 60 FPS, this is on Ultra and Intel are branding this more of a 1080p High based card, so I’m pretty happy with that overall. Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II drops players into an unprecedented global conflict that features the return of the iconic Operators of Task Force 141. From small-scale, high-stakes infiltration tactical ops to highly classified missions, players will deploy alongside friends in a truly immersive experience. Infinity Ward brings fans state-of-the-art gameplay, with all-new gun handling, advanced AI system, a new Gunsmith and a suite of other gameplay and graphical innovations that elevate the franchise to new heights. Modern Warfare® II launches with a globe-trotting single-player campaign, immersive Multiplayer combat and a narrative-driven, co-op Special Ops experience. Available now on Steam. Moving onto Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II and again, the A580 comes in ahead of the RTX 3050 with 8% more performance overall, though the RX 6600 does seem to get favoured quite heavily in this title, though at 67 frames per second, it’s still nothing to grumble at when paying just $180. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. Cyberpunk again shows strong performance, with a small 3% lead, which while it doesn’t sound like much, it’s much better than it first seems, as the A580 comes in 14% cheaper to buy, which further cements its lead, and puts it just behind the RTX 3060, though the Ray Tracing performance will of course be a lot better on the NVIDIA based card. Death Stranding From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes a genre-defying experience, now expanded in this definitive DIRECTOR’S CUT. As Sam Bridges, your mission is to deliver hope to humanity by connecting the last survivors of a decimated America. Can you reunite the shattered world, one step at a time? Available now on Steam. In Death Stranding we see again, a victory coming to team blue over the RX 3050 by a pretty staggering 19% and for a cheaper price, though again, the RX 6600 is the better choice in this game with its very own 18% lead over the A580. Dying Light 2 The virus won and civilization has fallen back to the Dark Ages. The City, one of the last human settlements, is on the brink of collapse. Use your agility and combat skills to survive, and reshape the world. Your choices matter. Available now on Steam. Dying Light 2 sees the A580 pushing towards the top of our results, pushing ahead of both the RX 3050 by a HUGE margin of 57% and a lesser but still impressive 7%. Again, with the fact that the A580 is the cheaper of the three cards, it puts it in a much better light when talking about value for money. Hogwarts Legacy Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action RPG. Now you can take control of the action and be at the center of your own adventure in the wizarding world. Available now on Steam. Without sounding like a broken record, the Intel GPU again shows some impressive numbers in Hogwarts Legacy on the Ultra preset at 64 FPS which puts it 31% ahead of NVIDIA’s RTX 3050, though does put it behind the RX 6600 by 9% and yes, we did retest both the RX 6600 and 6600 XT and saw margin of error differences in the performance on both cards which seem to almost be throttled in this game. Horizon Zero Dawn Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future. Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines. Available now on Steam. Horizon Zero Dawn on the Ultimate quality setting sees some very playable framerates, which pushes ahead of NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 by 11%, though the more expensive RX 6600 sits ahead of Intel by the same 11%, though this game has been known to favour AMD GPUs anyway. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel, and optimized for PC by Nixxes Software, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC introduces an experienced Peter Parker who’s fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. At the same time, he’s struggling to balance his chaotic personal life and career while the fate of Marvel’s New York rests upon his shoulders. Available now on Steam. Spider-Man actually surprised me with some very strong numbers across the board on the very high preset with Intel coming in middle of the stack at 106 FPS. This also further cements its lead over the RX 6600 and RTX 3050. Two cards that will cost $30 to $50 more to buy brand new. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Flight Sim is known to bring any GPU to its knees, but the A580 holds up pretty well at 45 FPS. While it is playable, you’d probably want to dial the settings down somewhat to increase that performance, though even on Ultra, it still manages to dominate both AMD and NVIDIA at their respective price points. Watch Dogs: Legion Build a resistance from virtually anyone you see as you hack, infiltrate, and fight to take back a near-future London that is facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. Recruit and play as anyone in the city. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set. Hack armed drones, deploy spider-bots and take down enemies using an Augmented Reality Cloak. Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities. Take your recruits online and team up with your friends as you complete missions and challenging endgame content. Available now on UPlay. Then finally in Watch Dogs: Legion, the A580 manages to show why the NVIDIA RTX 3050 was such a flop as it pushes ahead by 13% in the averages, though it does lose out slightly to the RX 6600, though again, the disparity in cost there, could go in Intel’s favour. Cost Per Frame & Overall Average FPS So some pretty interesting results, especially when you look at where the card is aimed, which is 1080p high settings, and for the most part with our results, we use Ultra. Now before anyone rushes to the comments, we only received our sample yesterday due to delays, so didn’t have time to retest those the card on high settings as well as doing retests on some of the other cards which is still fairly fresh results anyway, though we are looking to do a big retest with a new system soon, so definitely make sure you’re subscribed for that. Now performance is one thing, but looking at the overall averages and cost per frame is the easiest way to gauge where each card is positioned, and to see how the Intel A580 really gets thrown into the mix. It’s here where the A580 comes out the best value GPU you can buy right now at $3.26 per frame when looking at the new retail market. It is hard to ignore the likes of the GTX 1060 used at $2.24 per frame, and even the RX 7600 at $3.30 per frame, which while it didn’t receive the best and warmest welcome when it launched, the small price cut it’s seen since its launch has definitely helped to put it in a better light, though that memory interface is still a real stickler to some. Power & Temperatures Now another area to look at is the overall performance of the card itself in terms of power, temperatures and noise because this can give an idea as to how a particular card is going to perform over a prolonged gaming session. When looking at the cooling performance during an hour-long loop of F1 23, and we saw a pretty stable affair with only minor fluctuations throughout the test. The GPU Temperature quickly rose to 68 degrees upon starting our lap but simply stayed there through the entire test, staying perfectly comfortable at that relatively low level. Memory did sit a bit higher at around 76 degrees on average, but it did see occasional dips down to 74 degrees. With these temperatures being more than enough for the cooler to handle we saw the core clock of the GPU reach a boost of up to 2400MHz, with an average of around 2200MHz. During this loop the card's fans rose to around 2200 RPM which sounds like a lot, but the tone of the fans meant that it was actually pretty quiet overall. In terms of power, the A580 was very low powered, sipping just 149 watts of power on average throughout the whole test. How Much Does it Cost? So again, overall, it seems like Intel has ticked all the right boxes, and while I always find it a tough one to talk about lower-end cards, I’m well aware that not everyone has the huge amounts of dollars to fork out on a high-end Ray traced, upscaled monster and it’s cards like this that bring me down a peg or two back to reality, especially when you consider its $180 price tag, which seemingly has no competition from AMD or NVIDIA at that level Overview What’s clear to see is that the A580 is a perfectly fine card. You could argue it’s a bit “meh” in the grand scheme of things, as it’s taking on two cards from yesteryear, and the likes of the RX 7600, albeit more expensive does come in 32% faster in the overall averages, and with AMD now sporting FSR 3, it further gives them a push in performance that Intel are still lacking behind with. I said it before and I think it’s worth saying again, but I still think Intel are lacking somewhat, but I think that was also expected, and I made it clear that I thought Intel’s first generation of GPUs would fall behind the mark somewhat, and that’s clear to see that they do, but they are getting better, but I think the key takeaway for the boys in blue is that they are learning from everything they do, and the next generation of Intel GPUs will be a huge leap forward, though when that will be is anyone's guess right now, though for now, it’s nice to have a little bit more competition in the market, especially in the low-end which is an area that I guess us as reviewers tend to neglect a little bit, though I am thankful for it, because benchmarking at a single resolution is a godsend compared to some of the other more complex tests we have to do across multiple settings, resolutions and configurations. Should I Buy One? For now, if you are in the market for a sub $200 GPU, there really is no other choice when looking at the new market and wanting the very best bang for buck though I will admit, that RX 7600 with the inclusion of FSR 3 is a hard one to ignore, and the latest upscaling tech from AMD may just be the one redeeming quality that GPU now has after the memory bus issue it faced at launch. Intel ARC A580