Intel Arc Pro B70: 32GB of VRAM at a Reduced Price to Challenge NVIDIA

Intel Arc Pro B70: An Ambitious Graphics Card at a Competitive Price

Intel recently unveiled its new professional graphics card, the Arc Pro B70, which is part of the Battlemage lineup. This card stands out with its 32 GB of GDDR6 ECC VRAM and 32 Xe cores, all offered at an attractive price of $949. With this offering, Intel aims to directly compete with NVIDIA in the local AI inference market.

The card is already available and positions itself as a viable option for IT teams looking to deploy local AI solutions without having to invest in more expensive models like NVIDIA's RTX Pro or Quadro.

Specifications Tailored for AI Inference

According to the specialized site Phoronix, the Arc Pro B70 boasts a TBP of 230 W and offers memory capacity that surpasses that of NVIDIA cards in the same price range. For instance, NVIDIA's RTX 5000 Ada also provides 32 GB of VRAM, but at a cost nearly three times higher. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, with its 96 GB, remains out of reach for most independent studios.

For AI applications, the amount of VRAM is crucial, as it determines the ability to handle complex language models like LLaMA 3 or Mistral. Intel claims that its card can deliver up to 2.2 times more context, 6.2 times more speed on multi-agent and multi-user loads, and twice as many tokens per dollar compared to the competition. These figures, while promising, come from Intel's internal benchmarks and require validation through independent testing.

A Strategic Choice for the Professional Market

Intel is clearly targeting the professional market with the Arc Pro B70, focusing on workstations and content creation rather than gaming. This positioning aligns with the strategy of the Battlemage architecture, which struggles to compete with NVIDIA and AMD in the consumer market.

The Arc Pro B70 continues the legacy of Intel's iGPU B390, which had already demonstrated a good performance-to-price ratio. The card is available immediately through AIB partners, indicating that Intel is not just making a simple announcement.

Intel also announced the Arc Pro B65, scheduled for mid-April, while confirming that no consumer version of the BMG-G31 chip is in the pipeline. This underscores the professional orientation of the Battlemage lineup.

The quality of drivers on Windows and Linux is mentioned as a determining factor for the success of the Arc Pro B70. The first independent tests will be crucial to confirm these promises.