Intel Arc A310 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data contains a single direct comparison between these two GPUs, and it is a decisive one. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the Intel Arc A310 scores 30,607 points against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M's 6,389 points. That is a delta of 379.1%, meaning the Arc A310 delivers nearly four times the compute performance in this workload. The head-to-head table shows one win for Intel and zero for NVIDIA, leaving no ambiguity about which card is faster in raw compute.

Looking beyond the direct matchup, the Arc A310's average benchmark score of 7,550 places it at the 40th percentile of all GPUs in the database. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon R7 250, averages 7,557, a difference of just 0.1%, effectively a tie. The Arc A310 also sits 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, which averages 7,472, and 1.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 8850M at 7,447. These margins are small, but they show the Arc A310 is competitive with a much newer mainstream desktop card, not just older mobile parts.

The GTX 580M's situation is different. Its average benchmark score of 6,389 puts it at the 37th percentile, and its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 SE with an identical average score of 6,389, a 0% delta. The other rivals are the NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 72 GB Blackwell at 6,407 (0.3% ahead of the GTX 580M), the AMD Radeon Pro WX 4100 at 6,330 (0.9% behind), and the AMD Radeon R7 M350 at 6,327 (1% behind). The GTX 580M is essentially at parity with a decade-old desktop card, which contextualizes its performance level in the modern database.

The gap between the two cards in the OpenCL test is not a narrow one. The Arc A310's score of 30,607 is roughly 4.8 times the GTX 580M's 6,389. Even accounting for the fact that OpenCL favors newer architectures, a 379.1% delta is far beyond any margin that could be explained by driver optimization alone. The Arc A310 also has other benchmark scores that indicate its strengths: 28,964 in Geekbench Vulkan, 5,433 in Passmark G3D, and 2,157 in Passmark GPU Compute. The GTX 580M has no recorded Vulkan score, no Passmark scores, and no other entries in the database, so the comparison is limited to the one shared test.

Where Each One Wins

The data shows exactly one recorded win, and it belongs to the Intel Arc A310 in Geekbench OpenCL. There are no recorded wins for the GTX 580M in any shared benchmark. For the Arc A310, the broader benchmark suite reveals where it excels: the Vulkan score of 28,964 is close to its OpenCL result, indicating strong cross-API compute performance. The Passmark G3D score of 5,433 is respectable for a card in the 40th percentile, while the Passmark GPU Compute score of 2,157 suggests the card handles general-purpose workloads better than pure graphics rasterization. The Passmark DirectX scores are notably low, with 31 in DirectX 10, 33 in DirectX 11, 29 in DirectX 12, and 69 in DirectX 9, indicating that legacy DirectX workloads are not this card's strength. The Passmark G2D score of 625 is modest, which is typical for a GPU not focused on 2D acceleration.

The GTX 580M's only recorded benchmark is the OpenCL test, so the database cannot show where it might win in other workloads. Its 37th percentile ranking and average score of 6,389 suggest it sits near the bottom quartile of modern GPUs. The absence of Vulkan support in its API list is telling, as it cannot run Vulkan workloads at all, per the recorded data. Its DirectX support is listed as 12 (11_0), which is a more limited feature set than the Arc A310's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

For users who need modern API support, the Arc A310 is the only option between these two. For users who need OpenCL compute, the Arc A310 wins by a wide margin. The GTX 580M has no recorded advantage in any category.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different eras and different design philosophies. The Intel Arc A310 uses the DG2-128 chip built on the Xe-HPG architecture, which is part of the Alchemist generation (Arc 3). It is fabricated on a 6 nm process at TSMC, with 7,200 million transistors on a 157 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 45.9 million per mm². The GTX 580M uses the GF114 chip based on the Fermi 2.0 architecture, from the GeForce 500M generation. It is built on a 40 nm process, also at TSMC, with 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, for a transistor density of 5.9 million per mm². The density difference is stark: the Arc A310 packs nearly eight times more transistors per square millimeter, which reflects the process technology gap between 6 nm and 40 nm.

The compute configurations also differ significantly. The Arc A310 has 768 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units. It also includes 6 ray tracing cores, a feature the GTX 580M lacks entirely. The GTX 580M has 384 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Despite having fewer shaders, the GTX 580M has twice the TMUs and double the ROPs of the Arc A310. However, the Arc A310's clock behavior changes the picture: it runs at a fixed 1750 MHz for both base and boost, while the GTX 580M has no recorded base or boost clocks. The result is that the Arc A310 achieves 2.688 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the GTX 580M manages 952.3 GFLOPS, which is less than one-third of the Intel card's throughput. The Arc A310 also supports FP16 at 5.376 TFLOPS (2:1 ratio), while the GTX 580M has no recorded FP16 capability.

Memory configurations are equally divergent. The Arc A310 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus, yielding 124.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 580M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 96.00 GB/s. The Arc A310's memory runs at 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective), while the GTX 580M's memory runs at 750 MHz (3 Gbps effective). The wider bus of the GTX 580M cannot compensate for the much slower memory clock and older GDDR5 standard. The Arc A310's pixel rate is 28.00 GPixel/s versus 9.920 GPixel/s for the GTX 580M, and its texture rate is 56.00 GTexel/s versus 39.68 GTexel/s.

The API support also separates the two. The Arc A310 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GTX 580M supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, with no Vulkan support recorded. The Arc A310 is a PCIe 4.0 x8 card with four mini-DisplayPort 2.0 outputs, while the GTX 580M uses an MXM-B (3.0) interface and has portable-device-dependent display outputs. The Arc A310 draws 30 W with no power connectors, while the GTX 580M draws 100 W, also with no power connectors. The Intel card is single-slot, while the NVIDIA card is an MXM module.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The Intel Arc A310 scores 30,607 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 379.1% higher than the GTX 580M's 6,389. This is the only shared benchmark in the database.

Q: Does the GTX 580M support Vulkan?

A: No. The GTX 580M has no Vulkan version listed in its API support, while the Intel Arc A310 supports Vulkan 1.4.

Q: How much memory does each card have?

A: The Intel Arc A310 has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 124.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 580M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: What is the power draw of each card?

A: The Intel Arc A310 has a TDP of 30 W, while the GTX 580M has a TDP of 100 W. Neither card requires power connectors.

Q: Which card has ray tracing cores?

A: Only the Intel Arc A310, which has 6 ray tracing cores. The GTX 580M has no ray tracing cores listed.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The Arc A310 has an average benchmark score of 7,550, placing it at the 40th percentile. The GTX 580M averages 6,389, placing it at the 37th percentile.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The process node is 6 nm for the Arc A310 versus 40 nm for the GTX 580M. Transistor count is 7,200 million versus 1,950 million, and die size is 157 mm² versus 332 mm². Transistor density is 45.9M per mm² versus 5.9M per mm². The Arc A310 has a base and boost clock of 1750 MHz, while the GTX 580M has no recorded clocks. Memory clock is 1937 MHz (15.5 Gbps effective) versus 750 MHz (3 Gbps effective). Memory size is 4 GB versus 2 GB, type is GDDR6 versus GDDR5, bus width is 64-bit versus 256-bit, and bandwidth is 124.0 GB/s versus 96.00 GB/s. Shading units are 768 versus 384, TMUs are 32 versus 64, ROPs are 16 versus 32, and the Arc A310 has 6 ray tracing cores while the GTX 580M has none. Pixel rate is 28.00 GPixel/s versus 9.920 GPixel/s, texture rate is 56.00 GTexel/s versus 39.68 GTexel/s, and FP32 is 2.688 TFLOPS versus 952.3 GFLOPS. The Arc A310 has FP16 at 5.376 TFLOPS (2:1), while the GTX 580M has no FP16 data. TDP is 30 W versus 100 W, slot width is single-slot versus MXM module, bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8 versus MXM-B (3.0), and display outputs are 4x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 versus portable-device dependent. DirectX support is 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus 12 (11_0), and Vulkan is 1.4 versus none. Release dates are 2022-10-11 versus 2011-06-27, and predecessors are Xe Graphics versus GeForce 400M, with successors being Battlemage versus GeForce 600M.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion: the Intel Arc A310 is the superior GPU in every measurable way within this comparison. Its OpenCL score is 379.1% higher, its average benchmark score is 18% higher, and it offers modern features like ray tracing cores, Vulkan support, and DirectX 12 Ultimate that the GTX 580M completely lacks. The GTX 580M, with its 40 nm process, 2 GB of GDDR5, and 952.3 GFLOPS of FP32, is a product from a different era of mobile computing. Its only advantage is a wider 256-bit memory bus and double the TMUs and ROPs, but those do not translate into higher bandwidth or throughput in the recorded benchmarks. The Arc A310 delivers more than double the memory capacity, more than triple the FP32 performance, and nearly four times the OpenCL score, all at 30 W versus 100 W. For any workload represented in the database, the Arc A310 is the card to choose. The GTX 580M should only be considered if the MXM form factor is a hard requirement, since the Arc A310 is a single-slot PCIe card. Otherwise, the verdict is unambiguous: the Arc A310 wins outright.