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Discussion ARC Battle Mage reviews. Discussion of performance, features, and various card models.




We can add other B series cards as they are released. I am hoping for another LP slot powered model that will compete with the RTX 3050 6GB but for around $120.
 
Tech Junky said:
Might be a little while and probably 6gb model like the a380. The B570/80 both need at least 1 power cable.
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B380 and B310 is exactly what I am hoping they do. If the B380 games like the A580 for $120 and is slot powered that'd be a great ultra budget card.

I think the B570 needs to be $199.99. Without a $50 price difference there is no reason to give up the extra vram or better performance. It'll be proclaimed the king of the sub $200 market that way. I think the reviews will be meh if it's $20-$30 cheaper.
 
B series LP profile card would also be the new king of the transcoders, for those who care.

So long as there is less driver wonkiness, I think the B570 will likely be an OEM oriented SKU for the prebuilt legions out there as a "base card" and having 10GB will be seen as better than 8GB for many. I think OEMs like "easy" numbers go up, like Mhz back in the day then core counts. Makes it easier to make folks dissatisfied with their old cards.

Plenty of folks coming off 1660 and 1650 cards too. I don't know if they'll look at Intel, but for at least the next three weeks or so they definitely should 🙂

CES 2025, let's go already.
 
B3xx is a problem because it still needs ReBar support, and lower the card is, the more it'll be used in older systems. I expected that and power management in idle to be fixed, but unfortunately it did not. Based on rumored amount of Battlemage dies out there, they definitely struggled and probably missed some project goals.
If the B380 games like the A580 for $120 and is slot powered that'd be a great ultra budget card.
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Sorry to disappoint, but it's not possible. A card at this cost level has much more attributed to fixed costs, so they need to cut the die disproportionately.

I'm thinking 64-bit bus and maybe 6 Xe2 cores. Based on how B580 performs, that'll probably be GTX 1650 Super level in 1080p. 30-50% over A380.

Another evidence that it cannot reach anywhere near A580 is power consumption. 50% improvement in perf/W means 2.5-2.7x performance required would get it over the slot power limit. Fixed power use also increases for lower power cards, meaning it'll do worse relative to higher end cards.
DAPUNISHER said:
I think the B570 needs to be $199.99. Without a $50 price difference there is no reason to give up the extra vram or better performance.
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The difference in performance may be quite minor. I'm thinking 6-7% in average and maybe it can do 10%, but at 4K. Also it's not 8GB RAM, but 10GB which means not so terrible.
 
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Bummer about the performance. If it can compete with the 3050 6GB though, that'd be great for $40-$50 less. I agree the need for rebar support limits adoption as rehabbing old office PCs and workstations is a good use case for LP slot powered cards. Few will know how, or be willing to, mod the bios to expose the setting.

If the B570 is that close in performance to the B580 with less ram, most people will pay the $25-$30 for the extra ram. $50 is a different price tier and will result in more positive reviews and better sales.
 
DAPUNISHER said:
If the B570 is that close in performance to the B580 with less ram, most people will pay the $25-$30 for the extra ram. $50 is a different price tier and will result in more positive reviews and better sales.
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You think so? Even if it's just 20% more VRAM?
 
DavidC1 said:
You think so? Even if it's just 20% more VRAM?
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12GB is meme status as the new minimum on PCMR with over 14 million members. The 3060 12GB is currently in the number 1 and 3 spots on Amazon U.S. at the moment, and there are 3 models in the top ten. The prices are $280-$300 for a soon to be 2 gen old card. That speaks to the impact vram has on influencing sales. I think that 20% less vram needs a 20% discount.
 
DAPUNISHER said:
12GB is meme status as the new minimum on PCMR with over 14 million members. The 3060 12GB is currently in the number 1 and 3 spots on Amazon U.S. at the moment, and there are 3 models in the top ten. The prices are $280-$300 for a soon to be 2 gen old card. That speaks to the impact vram has on influencing sales. I think that 20% less vram needs a 20% discount.
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Yep, I use Slickdeals comments as my barometer for "non PCMR/non anandtech but more regular Joe shoppers" and the push back on 8GB and the recommendation for higher memory cards is prevalent when people ask if deals are "good or not". I think 8GB cards are the cusp of a pretty chilly reception.

I am sure the OEM channel will devour them at their volume pricing agreements but at retail for the rest of us, ick.

As I alluded to in the other thread, no one should buy the equivalent of the GTX 960 2GB today. It might be "fine" but its a razors edge and on borrowed time.

Feeling better about spending the extra $20 to get my buddy a GTX 2060 12GB vs a 2060 Super all the time.
 
Vex puts a lot of emphasis on the 12GB in his review above. That is where the younger gamer mindset is. TAP and Co. are smart to target both their perception and budget. Not having more for the Xmas rush is a major goof.
 
DavidC1 said:
B3xx is a problem because it still needs ReBar support, and lower the card is, the more it'll be used in older systems. I expected that and power management in idle to be fixed, but unfortunately it did not. Based on rumored amount of Battlemage dies out there, they definitely struggled and probably missed some project goals.

Sorry to disappoint, but it's not possible. A card at this cost level has much more attributed to fixed costs, so they need to cut the die disproportionately.

I'm thinking 64-bit bus and maybe 6 Xe2 cores. Based on how B580 performs, that'll probably be GTX 1650 Super level in 1080p. 30-50% over A380.

Another evidence that it cannot reach anywhere near A580 is power consumption. 50% improvement in perf/W means 2.5-2.7x performance required would get it over the slot power limit. Fixed power use also increases for lower power cards, meaning it'll do worse relative to higher end cards.

The difference in performance may be quite minor. I'm thinking 6-7% in average and maybe it can do 10%, but at 4K. Also it's not 8GB RAM, but 10GB which means not so terrible.
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What do you mean by needs REBAR support? Like these cards won't even post if in a motherboard that doesn't have it on? If so that is a huge problem IMO.
 
Shmee said:
What do you mean by needs REBAR support? Like these cards won't even post if in a motherboard that doesn't have it on? If so that is a huge problem IMO.
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They'll POST and be usable. Their performance drops off a cliff though. Especially things like 1% lows if I remember right.
 
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WelshBloke said:
Iss there an issue with enabling rebar support? It's one click in the BIOS.
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Support. You need a new enough chipset and I believe CPU. AMD says a 500 series chipset but it's an option on my B450. I tried it once but it didn't seem stable so I turned it off. I would've looked into it more but it really isn't necessary since I'm not using an Arc.

You've piqued my interest though. I'm going to try it out again this weekend when I get some game time in and try it again.
 
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Shmee said:
What do you mean by needs REBAR support? Like these cards won't even post if in a motherboard that doesn't have it on? If so that is a huge problem IMO.
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I don't know how Battlemage is, but ReBar issues were more serious than just performance, which would drop significantly. It affected compatibility and created glitches in some games too.

Also ReBar isn't just an issue for older systems. Newer systems that didn't have Intel iGPUs would have partial ReBar support in Vulkan, meaning there would be performance impact.
 
Thunder 57 said:
Support. You need a new enough chipset and I believe CPU. AMD says a 500 series chipset but it's an option on my B450. I tried it once but it didn't seem stable so I turned it off. I would've looked into it more but it really isn't necessary since I'm not using an Arc.

You've piqued my interest though. I'm going to try it out again this weekend when I get some game time in and try it again.
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I enabled it as soon as I noticed it, not had any problems with it but I'm not entirely sure that it does a great deal! (5800X3D, RX6950XT and a x470 MB)
 
Thunder 57 said:
They'll POST and be usable. Their performance drops off a cliff though. Especially things like 1% lows if I remember right.
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The problems are bigger than that, at least for Alchemist. People reported compatibility issues(although fairly rare), and report system for ARC said systems without Intel iGPU has partial ReBar support, meaning 8GB is Rebar but other 8GB is no ReBar in Vulkan, which means it would potentially lose performance even in newer systems.
 
Prime using the B580 for a good bang for buck SFF build. I'd pay a bit extra for a better PSU than Apevia though. I've bought EVGA and Seasonic full modular gold rated SFX PSUs here in the forums for $50, so keep an eye on message board For Sale forums to snag a deal on one.

 
Wendell tests the Steel Legend -


PCIe 3 x16 can lose 10% performance. There will be situations where it's worse; he only looked at it briefly. I'd like to see i7 8700 results with the rebar mod. You can find it and the Xeon equivalent in old business PCs for dirt cheap on Ebay. How much does the bus speed and driver overhead drag it down compared to say, a 6700XT?
 
Linux gaming is understandably terrible. I do think Linux gaming is going to catch fire over the next few years, so they'd better not miss another boat before it sails.

 
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