Intel ARC Pro B70 Gaming Tested – Does “Big Battlemage” Impress?
How good is Intel’s “Big Battlemage” GPU at gaming? Level1Techs answers
Wendell at Level1Techs has tested Intel’s newly released ARC Pro B70 graphics card in gaming workloads, showcasing what Intel’s “Big Battlemage” silicon can do. While this GPU isn’t a gaming product, it uses the same silicon as Intel’s long-rumoured ARC B770 graphics card. While it is unclear whether Intel ever plans to release the B770, the ARC Pro B70 should give us a clear glimpse of what could have been.
Wendell compared the ARC Pro B70 to Intel’s ARC Pro B60. The ARC Pro B60 is effectively a professional version of the ARC B580 graphics card with more VRAM. As such, we should expect the ARC Pro B70 to deliver similar performance improvements over the ARC Pro B60 as a hypothetical ARC B770 would have over an ARC B580.
ARC Pro B70 Gaming Performance
At 1440p in Cyberpunk 2077, we see performance gains of around 43-44% over the ARC Pro B60. This is for both average and 1st-percentile framerates. Solid performance gains for such a demanding game at 1440p. Note that no upscaling was used for the results below.
(Data from Level1Techs)
At 1440p in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we see performance gains of around 48% over the ARC Pro B60. This is enough to push the game above 100 FPS using the game’s “Highest” preset.
(Data from Level1Techs)
Finally, in Monster Hunter Wilds, level1Techs saw 1st-percentile framerates increase by 65% and the average framerate increase by around 48.5% at 1440p Medium settings. Monster Hunter Wilds is a demanding game, even with its optimisation updates.
(Data from Level1Techs)
Overall, Intel’s ARC Pro B70 delivers solid performance gains in games. This would make Intel’s hypothetical ARC B770 GPU a strong performer. That said, Intel’s ARC B580 GPU launched in late 2024, which makes Intel’s potential B770 launch seem very late. Will Intel ever launch its “Big Battlemage” silicon outside of the professional GPU market? That’s unclear. Regardless, it showcases that Intel can indeed create more powerful gaming GPUs. Hopefully, we will see these in the future with new Xe3 or Xe3P discrete GPUs.
You can join the discussion on the gaming performance of Intel’s “Big Battlemage” GPU on the OC3D Forums.
