Bad performance & Low wattage on Arc B580

[Xebakyr]

Had the Arc B580 a couple months now and it often performs very well. Cyberpunk 2077, for example, performs fantastically at max settings with RTX on. However, i'm currently having issues with certain games, most notably UE5 titles and No Mans Sky are the ones i've noticed.

For example with Oblivion Remastered I struggled to get 60fps regardless of settings, and the same with Expedition 33. I'm most concerned about No Mans Sky, though, as whilst the performance is certainly playable it's much below what i've seen from this GPU in benchmarks and recorded tests by others so i'll be using that as the example.

Specs & Information
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
GPU: Intel Arc B580
Motherboard: MSI Mag B550 Tomahawk Max WIFI
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 16GB (2x8GB) @3200Mhz
PSU: Corsair 1000w, don't remember the exact build (sorry!)
Boot Drive: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
Operating System: Windows 11 Home, Version 24H2, Build 26100.4946
Graphics Driver Version: 32.0.101.7026 (Latest, updated September 2, 2025)
Product Version: No Mans Sky latest build, playing through Steam

Initial information to establish some basic things i've made sure of:
Resizable BAR is ENABLED
Smart Access Memory is ENABLED
PC is using High Performance Mode, selected in Windows
I've tested Game Mode
XMP is enabled
Graphics Drivers have been installed after running DDU to make sure other drivers are gone
VSync is disabled, both in-game and in the Intel Graphics Software
All FPS limiting methods (in-game, in the Intel Graphics Software and otherwise) are disabled
I have tested with low-latency mode both on and off.


I've also attached the SSU report containing the relevant information. Whilst performance is entirely playable and stable, it's far below the actual expectations from the card given what i've seen from benchmarks and videos uploaded to Youtube. I'd love to run CapFrameX (as suggested at https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/Need-help-Reporting-a-bug-or-issue-with-Arc-GPU-PLEASE-READ-THIS/m-p/1494429#M5057) but it does not generate the configuration folder and if I manually create it and drop in the file, it deletes the folder and the file with it, so I can't do that right now. I will attach screenshots to hopefully give details on the issue, and do my best to explain with words, too.

Firstly, i've tested the game at both minimum settings @480p resolution, and maximum settings @ 1080p. The difference in performance is minimal, if any. Certainly not what I would expect from a card that i've seen getting more than twice the FPS i'm receiving. Usually, I would assume a CPU bottleneck, but i've also seen the same CPU benchmarked in this game receiving ~200FPS.

Secondly, upon checking the Intel Graphics software, I noticed the GPU Frequency is at ~900Mhz, whilst GPU Wattage is ~30W which seems odd considering the cards 190W TDP. I'm aware that TDP does not mean "the card will run at this wattage", but with such a low frequency compared to the maximum and such a low power draw and no CPU limitation, that seemed somewhat concerning. VRAM usage was sat at around ~5GB, so i'm also not capping out my VRAM.

Lastly, when stepping the settings up to the maximum and setting resolution back to 1080p, the GPU frequency skyrockets, now sitting at 2250Mhz. However, GPU utilization still sits at ~75% and the GPU still only draws 58w. Performance is almost unchanged. VRAM usage rises significantly, but remains far under the 12Gb available to the card. CPU usage remains identical.

First image is @480p, minimum settings. Second image is @1080p, maximum settings. Apologies if i've missed any potentially relevant information.

[Xebakyr]

Something I did forget to mention: My GPU is overclocked using the Intel Graphics Software. +300Mhz clock speed, +1Gbps memory speed, 120% power limit. This has been stable for months and has never crashed, i've also stress tested this with the UNIGINE Heaven benchmarking tool.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Xebakyr,

Thank you for contacting Intel support regarding the performance issues you're experiencing with your Arc B580 GPU, particularly with UE5 titles and No Man's Sky.

I acknowledge that you've already performed extensive troubleshooting including:

• Enabling Resizable BAR and Smart Access Memory
• Using DDU for clean driver installation
• Testing various performance settings
• Confirming your overclock stability

Based on your detailed report, I recommend updating to the latest graphics driver version 32.0.101.7028, as your current version 32.0.101.7026 may have newer optimizations for the games you're experiencing issues with. You can download the latest driver here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/785597/intel-arc-iris-xe-graphics-windows.html

Please perform a clean installation using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) following Intel's official instructions here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000091878/graphics.html

For faster communication and more detailed troubleshooting, I'd like to schedule a phone call to work through this issue together. This will allow us to perform real-time diagnostics and potentially identify the root cause of the unexpectedly low GPU utilization and power draw you're observing.

Best regards, 

Dean R. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[Xebakyr]

Hi, thanks for the reply and sorry for the slow one from myself.

I would be okay with scheduling a phone call and can shift my shedule to make room for it whenever. How should I go about sending you my contact number (since i'd rather not post it here)?.

To preadd some more information for your convenience, i've done some more testing over yesterday whilst I was working. I've tried fully reinsntalling my CPU chipset drivers, a full Windows reinstall and, as suggested by you, updating my GPU drivers to the latest version. I've also tried removing both my GPU overclock and my CPU undervolt/underclock and saw negative performance impacts from doing so.

I also tried Intel Presentmon to analyze my frames. Admittedly, this hasn't helped me much, but the data points to my CPU not performing as i've seen in benchmarks (which I acknowledge is not your issue as I am not using an Intel branded CPU, unless this falls unded the Arc driver overhead issue). In No Mans Sky, I was seeing GPU wait times of ~2-3ms, whilst in Baldurs Gate 3 I was seeing no wait times from either the CPU and GPU, and hitting a steady 160 fps with much closer to expected GPU power draw (~150w).

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Xebakyr,

Thank you for your detailed follow-up and the additional testing you've conducted. I appreciate the thoroughness of your troubleshooting efforts, including the chipset driver reinstallation, Windows reinstall, GPU driver update, and the Intel PresentMon analysis.

Your findings are very insightful, particularly the difference in GPU behavior between No Man's Sky (2-3ms GPU wait times, low power draw) and Baldur's Gate 3 (no wait times, expected ~150W power draw, steady 160fps). This suggests the issue may be game-specific rather than a general hardware problem.

For our phone call, I'll need to contact you privately to get your phone number. I'll send you a separate email shortly to collect your contact information securely.

In preparation for our call, could you please gather the following information:

• Exact version numbers for No Man's Sky, Oblivion Remastered, and Expedition 33
• Are these Steam, Epic Games Store, or other platform versions?
• Could you capture and save PresentMon logs for both No Man's Sky (problematic) and Baldur's Gate 3 (working well) for comparison?
• CPU and GPU temperatures during the problematic games
• CPU usage per core/thread breakdown
• Any background processes that might be affecting performance
• Screenshots of your in-game graphics settings for No Man's Sky
• Any game-specific optimizations or mods installed

This information will help us have a more productive call and potentially identify patterns in the performance discrepancies you're experiencing.

Best regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Xebakyr]

I've created a ZIP folder containing screenshots of graphics settings for all 4 of the games you listed, as well as Presentmon logs, screenshots of the game window & Presentmon overlay and statistics from HW monitor Unfortunately I wasn't able to get heat statistics from during gameplay. I also do not own a copy of either Oblivion Remastered nor Expedition 33, so I won't actually be able to test any updated versions of the games. The website won't let me attach the ZIP folder unfortunately, so i'll attach this in the email as there's more than 10 files.

After a full reinstall of Windows + my GPU drivers + chipset drivers, performance seems better and GPU power usage seems more in line with expectations, although performance is still below expected when compared to similar hardware and identical CPUs with different GPUs. 

No Mans Sky:
Product Version: 151377 (Latest)
Platform: Steam
Unmodded, vanilla installation

Oblivion Remastered:
Product Version: 0.411.140.0
Platform: Steam
Unmodded, vanilla installation

Baldurs Gate 3:
Product Version: 4.1.1.6897358
Platform: Steam
Heavily modded, no "performance improvement" mods

Expedition 33
Product Version: 57661
Platform: Steam
Unmodded, vanilla installation

Background Processes details:
Steam
Discord
Spotify
SteelseriesGG
HWMonitor
Intel Presentmon