Intel Arc B570 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 and Intel Arc B570 represent two distinct interpretations of the mainstream graphics card, and the benchmark data shows a clear split in their respective strengths. Across ten head-to-head tests, the RTX 5050 claims seven victories, while the Arc B570 takes three, yet the average benchmark scores tell a closer story: the RTX 5050 posts an average of 21,035, landing just 2.3% above the Arc B570's 20,556 average. This places the NVIDIA card at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, while the Intel card sits at the 65th percentile, making them near-peers in overall performance despite their different architectural priorities.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 5050 establishes dominance in legacy and compute-oriented workloads, while the Arc B570 asserts itself primarily in modern DirectX 12 and Vulkan scenarios. The NVIDIA card's largest victories come in rasterization and general-purpose tasks: it leads by 68.4% in Passmark G2D (1,113 vs 661), 58.5% in Passmark DirectX 10 (103 vs 65), and 27.1% in Passmark DirectX 11 (150 vs 118). These are substantial margins that suggest the RTX 5050 handles older API titles and 2D acceleration with far greater efficiency. The compute advantage is equally pronounced, with the RTX 5050 winning Passmark GPU Compute by 26.1% (9,184 vs 7,281) and Geekbench OpenCL by 8.2% (90,334 vs 83,514).

Conversely, the Arc B570 concentrates its wins where modern engines increasingly rely on advanced features. It takes the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test by 5.5% (2,649 vs 2,502), Geekbench Vulkan by 7.7% (96,844 vs 89,381), and Passmark DirectX 12 by 8.3% (72 vs 66). The Vulkan margin is particularly telling, as it indicates the Intel architecture extracts better performance from low-level, multi-threaded APIs that prioritize draw call throughput. For users targeting the latest DX12 titles or Vulkan-based engines, the Arc B570 holds a measurable edge; for those with back catalogs of DX9 through DX11 games, the RTX 5050 is the clear choice.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs diverge fundamentally in their underlying designs. NVIDIA's RTX 5050 uses the GB207 chip built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 16,900 million transistors on a 149 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 113.4M per mm², a figure that reflects NVIDIA's focus on packing compute resources tightly. Intel's Arc B570, by contrast, uses the BMG-G21 chip with the Xe2-HPG architecture, also on TSMC's 5 nm node, but it scales up to 19,600 million transistors across a 272 mm² die, resulting in a lower density of 72.1M per mm². The larger Intel die dedicates more area to the memory subsystem and render output units, as evidenced by its 80 ROPs versus the RTX 5050's 32 ROPs.

The shading and texture resources also take different shapes. The RTX 5050 fields 2,560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 20 RT cores, while the Arc B570 counters with 2,304 shading units but a much higher 144 TMUs and 80 ROPs. Notably, the Arc B570 lists 18 RT cores but no dedicated tensor cores, whereas the RTX 5050 includes 80 tensor cores alongside its RT units. This architectural split explains the benchmark behavior: the RTX 5050's higher shading unit count and tensor core support boost its FP32 throughput to 13.17 TFLOPS, but the Arc B570's FP16 output reaches 23.04 TFLOPS thanks to a 2:1 ratio, versus the RTX 5050's 1:1 FP16 at 13.17 TFLOPS. The Intel card also achieves far higher pixel and texture rates — 200.0 GPixel/s and 360.0 GTexel/s respectively, compared to the RTX 5050's 82.30 GPixel/s and 205.8 GTexel/s — which aligns with its ROP and TMU advantage.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single-test margin belongs to the RTX 5050 in Passmark G2D, where its 1,113 score crushes the Arc B570's 661, a 68.4% delta. This is a decisive win for desktop compositing and 2D workloads, and it underscores how the NVIDIA card's driver overhead and geometry handling favor traditional windowed environments. The Passmark DirectX 10 test shows a similar story, with the RTX 5050 scoring 103 against Intel's 65, a 58.5% advantage that suggests older DX10 titles run far smoother on the NVIDIA hardware.

Moving to compute, the RTX 5050 wins Passmark GPU Compute by 26.1%, scoring 9,184 versus 7,281, and Geekbench OpenCL by 8.2%, at 90,334 versus 83,514. These results indicate that for OpenCL-based applications, the NVIDIA card offers better raw throughput per clock. The RTX 5050 also takes Passmark DirectX 11 by 27.1% (150 vs 118) and Passmark DirectX 9 by 13.4% (186 vs 164), reinforcing its legacy API strength. In the full 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, however, the Arc B570 pulls ahead by 5.5% (2,649 vs 2,502), and its Geekbench Vulkan score of 96,844 beats the RTX 5050's 89,381 by 7.7%. The Passmark DirectX 12 result follows suit, with the Arc B570 winning 72 to 66, an 8.3% margin. The pattern is consistent: Intel's newer architecture excels at modern API overhead reduction, while NVIDIA's design retains an edge in older, less parallel workloads.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The RTX 5050 launches at 249 USD MSRP, while the Arc B570 launches at 219 USD MSRP, and the RTX 5050 debuts on 2025-06-30, roughly five months after the Arc B570's 2025-01-15 release. Memory configuration varies sharply: the RTX 5050 offers 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, whereas the Arc B570 provides 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus, raising bandwidth to 380.0 GB/s. The Intel card's extra VRAM and higher bandwidth directly support its higher texture and pixel rates, though the RTX 5050 compensates with faster memory clocks — 2500 MHz at 20 Gbps effective versus the Arc B570's 2375 MHz at 19 Gbps effective.

Clock speeds also favor NVIDIA: the RTX 5050 runs a 2317 MHz base and 2572 MHz boost, while the Arc B570 holds a flat 2500 MHz for both base and boost. Power consumption goes the other way, with the RTX 5050 rated at 130 W TDP and a 300 W suggested PSU, versus the Arc B570's 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU. The bus interface differs as well: the RTX 5050 uses PCIe 5.0 x8, while the Arc B570 uses PCIe 4.0 x8. Display outputs are nearly identical, with both offering 1x HDMI and 3x DisplayPort, though the RTX 5050 uses HDMI 2.1b and DisplayPort 2.1b, while the Arc B570 uses HDMI 2.1a and DisplayPort 2.1. The Arc B570 also specifies physical dimensions of 272 mm in length and 115 mm in height, while the RTX 5050 lists no dimensions.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins more head-to-head benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 wins 7 of the 10 head-to-head tests, while the Intel Arc B570 wins 3.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RTX 5050 averages 21,035 points, which is 2.3% higher than the Arc B570's 20,556 average. The RTX 5050 sits at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, and the Arc B570 at the 65th.

Q: In which specific test does the RTX 5050 have its biggest advantage?

A: The RTX 5050 leads by 68.4% in Passmark G2D, scoring 1,113 versus the Arc B570's 661.

Q: Where does the Intel Arc B570 outperform the RTX 5050?

A: The Arc B570 wins in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (2,649 vs 2,502), Geekbench Vulkan (96,844 vs 89,381), and Passmark DirectX 12 (72 vs 66).

Q: What are the memory size and bandwidth differences?

A: The RTX 5050 has 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the Arc B570 has 10 GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do their power requirements differ?

A: The RTX 5050 has a 130 W TDP and a 300 W suggested PSU, whereas the Arc B570 has a 150 W TDP and a 450 W suggested PSU.