Intel Arc B580 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile and the Intel Arc B580 occupy adjacent positions in the overall performance hierarchy, with the NVIDIA part holding a 69th percentile rank among all GPUs and the Intel part at 68th. Despite this near-identical overall standing, their average benchmark scores diverge by only 607 points (23,628 vs 23,021), yet the head-to-head results reveal a clear split in workload preferences. The Intel Arc B580 claims six of ten direct benchmark victories, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile takes four, with the margins in each direction telling a more nuanced story than the final tally suggests.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single victory in this comparison belongs to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile in the Passmark DirectX 10 test, where it scores 120 against Intel’s 76, a commanding 57.9% advantage. This is an outlier margin that dwarfs every other delta in the dataset, indicating a substantial legacy-API performance lead for the Ampere architecture. The NVIDIA part also wins the Passmark DirectX 11 test by a solid 14.1% (146 vs 128), and the Passmark G3D test by a narrower 3.6% (16,321 vs 15,748). In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GPU posts 104,831 against 92,821 for Intel, a 12.9% win that underscores its compute throughput advantage in this particular workload.

The Intel Arc B580’s wins are led by the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, where its 3,068 score beats the NVIDIA part’s 2,644 by 13.8%. This is the most modern and demanding test in the set, and Intel’s margin here is nearly as large as NVIDIA’s DirectX 10 win. The Arc B580 also takes the Geekbench Vulkan test with 109,672 vs 104,066, a 5.1% edge, and the Passmark GPU Compute test with 7,729 vs 7,276, a 5.9% win. Smaller victories come in Passmark DirectX 12 (76 vs 72, a 5.3% margin), Passmark DirectX 9 (183 vs 170, a 7.1% margin), and Passmark G2D (709 vs 637, a 10.2% margin). The pattern is consistent: NVIDIA dominates older DirectX iterations and OpenCL, while Intel wins the contemporary DX12 and Vulkan workloads plus compute.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different foundations. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile uses the GA104 chip on Samsung’s 8 nm process, packing 17,400 million transistors into a 392 mm² die for a transistor density of 44.4M per mm². The Intel Arc B580 employs the BMG-G21 chip on TSMC’s 5 nm node, with 19,600 million transistors in a smaller 272 mm² die, achieving a markedly higher density of 72.1M per mm². This process advantage allows Intel to fit more transistors into less silicon, though the NVIDIA part’s larger die still houses significantly more execution resources.

The NVIDIA GPU carries 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, 96 ROPs, 48 RT cores, and 192 tensor cores. The Intel part has 2,560 shading units, 160 TMUs, 80 ROPs, and 20 RT cores, with no tensor core count listed. Despite having fewer than half the shading units, the Intel GPU reaches a higher boost clock of 2670 MHz compared to NVIDIA’s 1545 MHz boost. This clock advantage helps Intel achieve a pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s, both exceeding NVIDIA’s 148.3 GPixel/s and 296.6 GTexel/s. However, the NVIDIA part’s raw FP32 throughput of 18.98 TFLOPS surpasses Intel’s 13.67 TFLOPS, while Intel’s FP16 output of 27.34 TFLOPS (at a 2:1 ratio) more than doubles its own FP32 rate.

Memory configurations differ in capacity but not dramatically in bandwidth. The NVIDIA GPU uses 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus for 448.0 GB/s, while the Intel GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus for 456.0 GB/s. The Intel part’s slightly higher bandwidth comes from a 19 Gbps effective memory speed versus 14 Gbps for NVIDIA. Power profiles are also distinct, with the NVIDIA mobile part rated at 115 W TDP and no power connectors, while the Intel desktop card draws 190 W and requires a single 8-pin connector with a 450 W suggested PSU. The Intel card is a dual-slot design measuring 272 mm by 115 mm by 45 mm, whereas the NVIDIA mobile GPU is portable-device dependent with no fixed dimensions.

The Verdict

The data supports a clear division of labor. For users prioritizing legacy DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is the unambiguous choice, with leads of 57.9% and 14.1% respectively. Its OpenCL performance advantage of 12.9% also makes it the pick for compute workloads that rely on that API. The NVIDIA part’s average score of 23,628 places it 0.5% ahead of the RTX 3070 Ti Mobile and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, while sitting 1% behind the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and 0.5% behind the GTX TITAN Z.

For modern gaming and compute, the Intel Arc B580 is the stronger option. Its 13.8% lead in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 indicates superior DirectX 12 performance, and its 5.1% Vulkan win reinforces this. The Intel part’s average score of 23,021 places it 0.6% ahead of the RTX 2080 and 0.7% behind the desktop RTX 3080, with negligible deltas to the RX 580 2048SP and P106-100. The Arc B580’s 12 GB memory capacity also provides more headroom for texture-heavy workloads, though the bandwidth difference of 8 GB/s is minor. Given that the Intel GPU wins the most recent and demanding test by the largest margin, it is the more future-proof choice for DirectX 12 and Vulkan titles.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 23,628, which is 607 points higher than the Intel Arc B580’s 23,021.

Q: How large is the Intel Arc B580’s win in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The Intel Arc B580 scores 3,068 in this test, beating the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile’s 2,644 by 13.8%.

Q: What is the NVIDIA GPU’s biggest advantage over the Intel part?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile leads by 57.9% in Passmark DirectX 10, scoring 120 versus 76 for the Intel Arc B580.

Q: Do the two GPUs have identical memory bandwidth?

A: No, the Intel Arc B580 has a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s, slightly higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile’s 448.0 GB/s.

Q: How do their transistor counts compare?

A: The Intel Arc B580 has 19,600 million transistors, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile has 17,400 million transistors.

Q: Which GPU has a higher FP32 throughput?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile delivers 18.98 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, exceeding the Intel Arc B580’s 13.67 TFLOPS.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile wins in four benchmark categories: Passmark DirectX 10, Passmark DirectX 11, Passmark G3D, and Geekbench OpenCL. Its DirectX 10 performance is exceptional, with a 57.9% margin that suggests a strong legacy driver stack or architectural advantage for older APIs. The 14.1% DirectX 11 lead and 3.6% G3D win indicate that NVIDIA maintains an edge in traditional rasterization workloads that do not leverage modern features. The 12.9% OpenCL advantage points to higher raw compute throughput, consistent with its 18.98 TFLOPS FP32 rating.

The Intel Arc B580 wins in six categories: 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, Geekbench Vulkan, Passmark DirectX 12, Passmark DirectX 9, Passmark G2D, and Passmark GPU Compute. Its 13.8% lead in Steel Nomad is the most significant modern-workload victory, showing that the Xe2-HPG architecture scales well with DirectX 12’s advanced features. The Vulkan win of 5.1% and the DirectX 12 win of 5.3% reinforce this pattern, while the 5.9% GPU Compute win and 10.2% G2D win suggest broader strengths in compute and 2D operations. The DirectX 9 win of 7.1% is notable given NVIDIA’s dominance in DirectX 10, indicating Intel’s emulation or translation layers for older DX9 titles perform competitively. For users running a mix of recent DirectX 12 and Vulkan games, the Intel Arc B580 is the data-backed selection; for those with legacy DirectX 10/11 applications or OpenCL compute, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile is clearly superior.