Introduction
The ASRock Intel Arc B570 Challenger 10GB OC video card is new from ASRock and based on the Intel Arc B570 (Battlemage) GPU. ASRock is a well-known manufacturer of computer hardware components, and in the past has been a big provider of AMD-based solutions. When Intel Arc A-Series of GPUs launched, ASRock also partnered with Intel to bring many designs to the table. With the new Battlemage generation launch from Intel, ASRock is back at it with the Intel Arc B-Series, a couple of models of Intel Arc B580 video cards, and a single model based on the new Intel Arc B570 GPU, aimed at the $229 MSRP price point.
If you browse under ASRock’s video card lineup, with the Arc B-Series, ASRock does offer two variants of the upper Arc B580, a Steel Legend model, and a Challenger model. Under the Arc B570 GPU category, you’ll see that ASRock currently has a single Challenger model of the B570. The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC is a factory overclocked video card, however, with a custom cooling solution from ASRock, and has an official MSRP of $229.99, just a $10 premium over reference pricing for Intel Arc B570.
In our ASRock Challenger Intel Arc B570 review we will focus on what the Intel Arc B570 offers in terms of an upgrade path from previous generation graphics cards. At a price point of $229, there actually isn’t anything in AMD’s current Radeon RX 7000 series, or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series that exists at this price segment. You actually have to go back to the AMD RDNA 2 series (RX 6000), and NVIDIA RTX 30 series, to find GPUs that launched near this pricing, and can still be found available today brand new around this price point.
Therefore, our review today aims to find out what upgrading from these older video cards, like the Radeon RX 6600, or Radeon RX 6600 XT, or GeForce RTX 3050 would be like with the Intel Arc B570. How much of an upgrade would it really be if you purchased one of these cards? If you spent around ~$250 for one of those cards then, what would that same price point get you today with the Intel Arc B570? We aim to find out.
Intel Arc B570 is based on Intel’s new BMG-G21 SoC, also called Battlemage or Xe2 architecture. The Intel Arc B570 is a cut-down version of the die, which is fully utilized for the Intel Arc B580. Intel Arc B570 makes use of 18 Xe-Cores, with 5 Render Slices, 18 Ray Tracing Units, 144 XMX AI Engines, and is clocked at 2500MHz reference clock frequency. It comes with 10GB of GDDR6 on a 160-bit memory bus providing 380GB/s of memory bandwidth. The Total Board Power is 150W and has a PCIe 4.0 x8 connection with 1 single 8-pin power connector. It supports DisplayPort 2.1, and 1x HDMI 2.1. Reference pricing on Intel Arc B570 is $219.
ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC
The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC video card (B570 CL 10GO) comes in a nicely styled box, we’ve always enjoyed the color scheme for Intel GPUs. On the box, it displays that this is the OC Edition and some general features. Inside the box is a quick install guide, and that’s about it, there are no power adapter cables provided, it takes a straight 8-pin power connection.
When you take the video card out, you’ll notice straight away how small and compact the video card is. The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC measures just 249mm (9.8in) in length, 132mm (5.1in) in width, and a true 41mm (1.6in) in height which makes it a 2-slot video card. It weighs only 720g or 1.5 pounds, so it is very lightweight. For display, it has 3 DisplayPort 2.1 and 1x HDMI 2.1a ports on board. In fact, the center DisplayPort can support up to UHBR13.5 while the other two support UHBR10.
The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC is a factory overclocked video card. It comes out of the box with an overclock set at 2600MHz for the GPU boost. This is above the reference clock speed of 2500MHz for Intel Arc B570. That gives the ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC a 4% overclock, or 100MHz boost. However, due to the custom cooling, and power delivery, the video card will be able to boost higher on its own, and we’ll show that a bit later.
The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC is a dual-fan design, in a traditional axial fan configuration. ASRock has given the looks of this video card its Phantom Gaming look, as they call it. ASRock has given the rear of the video card a complete air pass-through of the air from the fan through the heatsink fin stack.
The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC also has a full metal backplate, adding rigidity and style and there is a thermal pad at the backside as well to help with heat transfer. The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC also supports 0dB silent cooling, and a unique fan design and Super Alloy components. The Striped Axian Fan enhances airflow, and the underside even has a unique polish to help airflow.
The video card uses Nano Thermal Paste to eliminate gaps in the contact area. The heatpipes on the video card make direct contact with the Copper Base contact area and GPU, they are Ultra-Fit and consolidated toward the middle of the GPU. High-density Metal Welding is used to improve heat dissipation. The Super Alloy group of technologies includes Japanese SP-Cap, SPS (Smar Power Stages) with Dr.MOS, Premium Power Choke, 2oz Copper PCB, and High Density Glass Fabric PCB.
The ASRock Challenger Arc B570 10GB OC also has a multiple-color LED strip on the video card. There is also a physical switch on the backside of the video card to turn this off. When installed, the video card fits well, takes up very little space, and runs very quietly.