7mo ago

Shipping Listing Suggests 24GB+ Intel Arc B580

Maybe even 32GB if they use newer ICs.

More explanation (and my source of the tip): https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/shipping-document-suggests-that-a-24-gb-version-of-intels-arc-b580-graphics-card-could-be-heading-to-market-though-not-for-gaming/

Would be awesome if true, and if it's affordable. Screw Nvidia (and, inexplicably, AMD) for their VRAM gouging.

12 comments

All GDDR6 modules, be they from Samsung, Micron, or SK Hynix, have a data bus that's 32 bits wide. However, the bus can be used in a 16-bit mode—the entire contents of the RAM are still accessible, just with less peak bandwidth for data transfers. Since the memory controllers in the Arc B580 are 32 bits wide, two GDDR6 modules can be wired to each controller, aka clamshell mode.
With six controllers in total, Intel's largest Battlemage GPU (to date, at least) has an aggregated memory bus of 192 bits and normally comes with 12 GB of GDDR6. Wired in clamshell mode, the total VRAM now becomes 24 GB.
We may never see a 24 GB Arc B580 in the wild, as Intel may just keep them for AI/data centre partners like HP and Lenovo, but you never know.

Well, it would be a cool card if it's actually released. Could also be a way for Intel to "break into the GPU segment" combined with their AI tools:
They’re starting to release tools to use Intel ARC for AI tasks, such as AI Playground and IPEX LLM:
https://game.intel.com/us/stories/introducing-ai-playground/
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/discrete-gpus/arc/software/ai-playground.html
https://game.intel.com/us/stories/wield-the-power-of-llms-on-intel-arc-gpus/
https://github.com/intel-analytics/ipex-llm
https://lemmy.world/comment/13094175
- In practice, almost no one with A770s uses ipex-llm simply because its not as vram efficient as llama.cpp, isn’t as feature rich, and the PyTorch setup is nightmarish.
  Intel is indeed making many contributions to the open source LLM space, but it feels… shotgunish? Not unified at all. AMD, on the other hand, is more focused but woefully understaffed, and Nvidia is laser focused on the enterprise space.
  
  I don't have any personal experience with selfhosted LMMs, but I thought that ipex-llm was supposed to be a backend for llama.cpp?
  https://yuwentestdocs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/doc/LLM/Quickstart/llama_cpp_quickstart.html
  Do you have time to elaborate on your experience?
  I see your point, they seem to be investing in every and all areas related to AI at the moment. Personally I hope we get a third player in the dgpu segment in the form of Intel ARC and that they successfully breaks the Nvidia CUDA hegemony with their OneAPI:
  https://uxlfoundation.org/
  https://oneapi-spec.uxlfoundation.org/specifications/oneapi/latest/introduction
I really hope they release this to consumers.
- It would be a really stupid business decision for them not to.
  
  I'm just wondering if I should already upgrade from A770 to B580

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