Intel Arc A580 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Comparison

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 dominates the Intel Arc A580 across every tested workload. In 3DMark Steel Nomad (DX12), the RTX 4080 scores 6567 against the Arc A580’s 2229, a 66.1% advantage. Geekbench Vulkan shows an even wider gap at 69.9%, with the RTX 4080 hitting 263,779 versus 79,381. OpenCL results follow the same pattern: 214,739 for NVIDIA versus 91,657 for Intel, a 57.3% margin. The RTX 4080 wins all three head-to-head tests, and its avgBenchmarkScore of 54,247 places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, while the Arc A580’s 57,756 average puts it at the 87th percentile — a statistical near-tie in aggregate data, but the individual tests tell a very different story.

Who should pick which? The RTX 4080 is for anyone whose priority is raw performance in modern DX12 titles and compute-heavy applications. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad score is nearly triple the Arc A580’s, and its Vulkan performance is over three times higher. The Arc A580, by contrast, is a lower-power, smaller-die option that still delivers respectable absolute scores — its avgBenchmarkScore actually edges out the RTX 4080’s by about 6.5%, a quirk driven by the fact that its benchmark suite is shorter and weighted differently. But in any direct comparison, the RTX 4080 is the clear performance winner. Note that the RTX 4080 is listed as end-of-life, while the Arc A580 remains active in production.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4080 wins every single head-to-head benchmark in the data — there are zero wins for the Arc A580. That makes the use-case split straightforward. The RTX 4080 is the choice for 3DMark Steel Nomad, a DX12 test that stresses ray tracing and mesh shading; its 6567 score versus 2229 indicates it can handle next-generation rendering workloads with substantial headroom. Geekbench Vulkan, which measures general GPU compute and graphics across a wide range of operations, also goes decisively to NVIDIA at 263,779 versus 79,381 — a 69.9% lead that suggests better driver optimization and hardware efficiency for Vulkan APIs. OpenCL compute, used in many scientific and rendering applications, favors the RTX 4080 by 57.3% (214,739 vs 91,657).

The Arc A580’s only “win” is contextual: its avgBenchmarkScore of 57,756 is higher than the RTX 4080’s 54,247, which reflects that the Intel card’s benchmark set (3DMark Steel Nomad, Geekbench OpenCL, Geekbench Vulkan) produces a higher arithmetic mean relative to the RTX 4080’s extended suite (which includes Passmark DX9–DX12, G2D, G3D, and compute tests). This is a statistical artifact, not a performance advantage. In any direct test where both cards run the same workload, NVIDIA wins by a wide margin.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from fundamentally different design philosophies. The Intel Arc A580 uses the DG2-512 chip built on TSMC’s 6 nm process, with 21,700 million transistors on a 406 mm² die — a transistor density of 53.4 million per mm². It’s based on the Xe-HPG architecture, specifically the Alchemist generation (Arc 5 series), and features 3,072 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, 96 ROPs, and 24 ray tracing cores. It has no dedicated tensor cores. The memory subsystem pairs 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth at 16 Gbps effective. Clock speeds are 1700 MHz base and 2000 MHz boost, producing 12.29 TFLOPS FP32 and 24.58 TFLOPS FP16 (2:1 ratio). The card draws 175 W TDP, uses dual-slot cooling and dual 8-pin power connectors, and requires a 450 W PSU.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a far larger design. Its AD103 chip is fabricated on TSMC’s 5 nm process, packing 45,900 million transistors into a 379 mm² die — a density of 121.1 million per mm², more than double the Arc A580’s. The Ada Lovelace architecture (GeForce 40-series) brings 9,728 shading units, 304 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 76 RT cores, and 304 tensor cores. Memory is 16 GB of GDDR6X on a 256-bit bus, with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth at 22.4 Gbps effective — 40% more bandwidth than the Arc A580. Base clock is 2205 MHz, boost 2505 MHz, yielding 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 and 48.74 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1 ratio). TDP is 320 W, the card is triple-slot with a single 16-pin power connector, and it recommends a 700 W PSU.

Process node and density differences are stark: the RTX 4080 crams over twice the transistors per mm² into a slightly smaller die. The Arc A580’s 6 nm process and 53.4M/mm² density are more conservative, while NVIDIA’s 5 nm approach enables 121.1M/mm². Both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. Display outputs differ: Intel offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 2.0, while NVIDIA has 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RTX 4080’s physical dimensions are 310 mm length, 140 mm height, and 61 mm width; the Arc A580’s dimensions are not listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw compute performance?

A: The RTX 4080 delivers 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 versus the Arc A580’s 12.29 TFLOPS — a nearly 4x difference. The RTX 4080 also offers FP16 at 48.74 TFLOPS (1:1), while the Arc A580’s FP16 is 24.58 TFLOPS (2:1).

Q: How do their memory configurations compare?

A: The RTX 4080 has 16 GB of GDDR6X with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth on a 256-bit bus. The Arc A580 has 8 GB of GDDR6 with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth, also on a 256-bit bus. The NVIDIA card has double the capacity and 40% more bandwidth.

Q: What are the power requirements?

A: The Arc A580 has a 175 W TDP and suggests a 450 W PSU, using dual 8-pin connectors. The RTX 4080 has a 320 W TDP, suggests a 700 W PSU, and uses a single 16-pin connector.

Q: Which card is better for Vulkan workloads?

A: The RTX 4080 wins Geekbench Vulkan by 69.9%, scoring 263,779 versus 79,381. This is the largest performance gap of any benchmark in the comparison.

Q: What is the production status of each card?

A: The Intel Arc A580 is listed as Active, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is End-of-life. The RTX 4080’s predecessor is the GeForce 30 series and its successor is the GeForce 50 series; the Arc A580’s predecessor is Xe Graphics and its successor is Battlemage.

Q: How do their launch dates and MSRPs differ?

A: The RTX 4080 launched on 2022-09-19 with a launch MSRP of 1,199 USD. The Arc A580 launched on 2023-10-09, and its launch MSRP is not provided.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is the most modern workload in the comparison, and it shows the biggest absolute gap. The RTX 4080 scores 6567, which is 4338 points higher than the Arc A580’s 2229 — a 66.1% deficit for Intel. This test stresses ray tracing, mesh shaders, and asynchronous compute, all areas where Ada Lovelace’s dedicated RT and tensor cores provide a decisive edge. The Arc A580’s 24 RT cores simply cannot match the RTX 4080’s 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores in this scenario.

Geekbench Vulkan shows the largest percentage gap. NVIDIA’s 263,779 score crushes Intel’s 79,381, a 69.9% difference. Vulkan is known to favor well-optimized drivers, and the data suggests NVIDIA’s implementation is significantly more efficient. This test also exercises compute shaders and memory bandwidth — the RTX 4080’s 716.8 GB/s versus the Arc A580’s 512.0 GB/s likely contributes to the margin, as does the 16 GB versus 8 GB capacity difference.

Geekbench OpenCL is the closest of the three, but still a commanding win for NVIDIA: 214,739 versus 91,657, a 57.3% delta. OpenCL is often used in professional and scientific computing, and the RTX 4080’s 48.74 TFLOPS FP32 versus 12.29 TFLOPS gives it a raw compute advantage that even well-optimized Intel drivers cannot overcome. The RTX 4080’s FP16 performance is also double the Arc A580’s, which matters for AI inference workloads that use half precision.

In aggregate, the RTX 4080’s avgBenchmarkScore of 54,247 is actually lower than the Arc A580’s 57,756, but this is due to the different benchmark suites included. The RTX 4080’s Passmark results (DX9: 370, DX10: 204, DX11: 314, DX12: 132, G2D: 1239, G3D: 34457, compute: 20671) drag its average down because those tests are less favorable to high-end GPUs. The Arc A580 only has three benchmarks in its suite, all of which are relatively strong for its class. This underscores why direct head-to-head tests are more informative than aggregate scores when comparing GPUs from different tiers.

The RTX 4080’s nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 SUPER (deltaPct +0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (-1.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (-2.6%), and the AMD Radeon 8060S (-2.7%). The Arc A580’s nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 5600 OEM (-0.6%), the Intel Arc A570M (-0.8%), the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE (+0.7%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (-1.1%). These rankings confirm that the Arc A580 competes in a much lower performance tier, while the RTX 4080 sits near the top of the enthusiast segment, despite its end-of-life status.