13 specifications

Intel Arc B580 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

On paper, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 has more shading units. Shading-unit counts are not directly comparable across different architectures, so read that row as context rather than a verdict. Specifications describe what each card is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 3 with a higher side

Full specifications

Intel Arc B580

Intel · Arc B-series (Battlemage) · Desktop

Full specifications

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

NVIDIA · GeForce RTX 30 · Desktop

Compute

Architecture

Xe2 Battlemage (BMG-G21, 20 Xe-cores)

Ampere (GA106-300)

Shading units

2,560

3,584

Base clock

1700 MHz

1320 MHz

Boost clock

2670 MHz

1777 MHz

Memory

12 GB

Memory type

GDDR6

Memory bus

192-bit

Power and platform

TDP

190 W

170 W

Process

5 nm

8 nm

Launched

2024-12-13

2021-02-25

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

3 years apart

The Arc B580 (Xe2 Battlemage (BMG-G21, 20 Xe-cores), 2024) is 3 years newer than the RTX 3060 (Ampere (GA106-300), 2021). A newer architecture brings more than speed: newer video encoders and decoders, newer upscaling and frame generation, and a longer run of driver updates ahead of it.

Video memory

Both carry 12 GB, so neither has the advantage where memory is the limit: high resolutions, heavy textures and local AI models fill both at the same point.

Shading units

The counts differ, 3,584 against 2,560, but these are different designs from different makers, and a shading unit on one is not the same amount of work as on the other. The row cannot be used to rank this pair.

Board power

The Arc B580 draws up to 190 W against 170 W. That is heat the case has to exhaust and current the power supply has to deliver: allow a supply of about 600 W for the Arc B580 with a typical processor, and check the card's power connectors against the supply's. A card that cannot shed its heat does not fail. It lowers its clocks after a few minutes, which is the frame rate that falls the longer you play.

Which to pick, on paper

A small case or a modest power supply: RTX 3060; 170 W against 190 W: less heat, fewer power connectors, quieter fans.

What no table says

How much of its speed a graphics card keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

Free GPU stress test

Questions

Is the Arc B580 better than the RTX 3060?: By need, on the specifications: a small case or a modest power supply: the RTX 3060. They are different designs, so the raw counts cannot rank them. Frame rates depend on the game and its settings, and how much speed either card keeps after ten minutes depends on its cooling, which is what a sustained test measures.
What power supply does the Arc B580 need?: Allow about 600 W with a typical processor, and make sure the supply has the power connectors the card uses. The RTX 3060 at 170 W is easier on both.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a graphics card behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

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