TAIPEI—Intel flexed its professional engineering muscles at Computex and announced its first two Intel Arc Pro B-series graphics cards, the Arc Pro B60 and Arc Pro B50, targeted at the workstation and server markets. We were on hand to check out these new GPUs in person and get the rundown on the AI-centric future of workstation computing.
The B60 steals the show here as the more potent of the pair, with 24GB of RAM, ready to power the next wave of AI inferencing workloads. These B60 cards will be produced by various partners, with some special models even featuring an innovative dual-GPU design with two Battlemage GPUs and an enormous 48GB pool of RAM in one card. Though less innovative, the Intel Arc B50 is also an alluring option with 16GB of RAM and a budget price of $299.
Intel Arc Pro B60 Puts Battlemage to Work
With Intel still relatively new to today’s graphics card industry, it’s always exciting to see what it will try next. That also extends to the workstation and server markets, where Intel has been a provider for a significantly longer time. It sometimes gets overlooked, but the last time Intel attempted to break into the graphics card industry, it found the product it created was better suited for heavy compute workloads. So, Intel released it as its Xeon Phi product line, which ran from 2010 through 2020.
(Credit: John Burek)
Xeon Phi was unquestionably successful for its time, adopted for several major projects. It even powered the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2013, the Tianhe-2. When Intel cancelled the Xeon Phi range, it turned to using Intel Arc graphics architecture to compete in this space instead with the Intel Arc Pro line, updated now with the Intel Arc B60 and the Intel Arc B50.
The standard Intel Arc Pro B60 is the workstation counterpart of the Intel Arc B580. Both feature the Intel BMG-G21 graphics chip with 20 Xe-cores based on the Battlemage architecture. The Intel Arc B580 has 12GB of GDDR6 with 456GB/s of memory bandwidth. Intel didn’t say what type of RAM the Arc Pro B60 would have, but GDDR6 seems likely, and we expect its memory bandwidth to be the same at 456GB/s. However, the Arc Pro B60 comes with double the amount of RAM, with 24GB, which will help it appeal to workstations.
The B60’s launch signals Intel’s effort to get AI inference-capable workstation hardware into server racks and professionals’ hands as soon as possible. Sampling starts now, with delivery targeting edge computing later this year. This launch should provide much more capable and scalable AI proficiency for creators and AI developers, where much of the workstation focus is shifting.
(Credit: John Burek)
We haven’t tested one of these cards, but Intel claims that the Intel Arc Pro B60 with 24GB of RAM could outperform an Nvidia RTX 2000 and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in some tests. The larger pool of vRAM likely helps the Arc Pro B60 in these tests.
Maxsun Intel Arc Pro B60 Dual 48G Turbo Doubles Down on AI Inferencing Capacity
Another more interesting option in the Intel Arc Pro line is a custom model made by Maxsun. The Maxsun Intel Arc Pro B60 Dual 48G Turbo combines two Intel Arc Pro B60 graphics chips onto a single card. Each GPU in this configuration operates independently with a PCIe 5.0 x8 connection and 24GB of RAM, giving the card 48GB total.
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(Credit: Maxsun)
This approach effectively isn’t any different from two Intel Arc B60 graphics cards, but workstations are all about cramming as much computational power as possible into as small a space as possible. This approach makes fitting two Arc B60 cards in the same space as you’d fit one a serious advantage.
We’re sure some of you wonder if we might see a gaming version of this card, but that is unlikely. Supporting two GPUs on one card isn’t complicated when those GPUs do compute work, but doing it while gaming is drastically different. It requires a substantial amount of additional driver work to get the best performance out of a setup like this, and even then, you’ll find issues, which is why AMD and Nvidia have both largely abandoned their multi-GPU gaming technologies. While not entirely impossible, Intel seems unlikely to move in that direction.
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The Budget B-Series Pro Card: Intel Arc Pro B50
The Intel Arc Pro B50 is the lesser of the two new workstation graphics cards that Intel announced during Computex. Though this card is likely using the BMG-G21 graphics chip too, it has four of its Xe-cores disabled, which reduces its overall performance. It also has less memory bandwidth and just 16GB of vRAM.
(Credit: John Burek)
The advantages of this card come in a few areas. Intel calls it compact, and while it has a dual-slot thermal solution, the card itself isn’t much longer than the PCIe x16 slot it plugs into. Its power draw is similarly low at less than 70 watts, meaning it doesn’t require additional power beyond what the PCIe slot provides to operate. Last but not least, it’s also affordable at $299.
(Credit: John Burek)
That price tag is higher than you would pay for a standard Intel Arc B580, but you don’t get the firmware and extra compute horsepower that comes from a workstation graphics card that way. Competing options like AMD’s Radeon Pro W7600 cost double that at full MSRP, even though it has just 8GB of RAM.
Intel Arc Pro Starts Sampling Now, Shipping In Fall
(Credit: John Burek)
Intel said it is now sampling both the Intel Arc Pro B60 and the Intel Arc Pro B50 to its customers, with general availability to come sometime in Q3 of this year. The Intel Arc Pro B60 will be available from several of Intel’s board partners, including ASRock and Maxsun, though we don’t know how much it will cost at this time. The Intel Arc Pro B50 will be an Intel-exclusive GPU product for $299.
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