The Intel Arc B580 graphics card has seen significant enhancements in its open-source Linux GPU compute performance over the past year. Launched in December 2024, the Battlemage-based discrete GPU now benefits from updated drivers and runtimes. This evolution highlights ongoing software optimizations for Intel's Arc series.
Intel's Battlemage graphics, particularly the Arc B580, launched last December with the B-Series lineup. As the one-year mark approaches, benchmarks reveal notable gains in GPU compute performance under Linux, driven by advancements in the open-source driver stack.
Testing used the same Arc B580 card paired with a Core Ultra 9 285K system. For context, comparisons include the older Arc A580 Alchemist card to illustrate software upgrade impacts.
Launch-day benchmarks from December 2024 ran on Ubuntu 24.10 with the Linux 6.13-rc1 kernel, Mesa 25.0-devel Git drivers, and the latest public Compute Runtime release. These focused primarily on OpenCL workloads.
Current tests, conducted at the end of November 2025, utilized Ubuntu 25.10, the Linux 6.18 Git kernel, Mesa 26.0-devel drivers, and Compute Runtime version 25.44.36015.5. This setup demonstrates how the Intel Compute Runtime has evolved, boosting performance for the Arc B580.
A follow-up article will examine OpenGL and Vulkan graphics performance changes. These improvements underscore the maturation of Intel's discrete graphics support on Linux, benefiting compute tasks over time.