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Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

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Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#211

Post by FuriouslyAdrift »

kokada wrote: post #145
rocqua wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that VRAM has massively shot up in price, so this is where a large part of the costs are. Besides I wouldn't be very surprised if Nvidia has such strong market share they can effectively tell suppliers to not let others sell high capacity cards. Especially because VRAM suppliers might worry about ramping up production too much and then being left with an oversupply situation.

This could well be the reason why the rumored RDNA5 will use LPDDR5X/LPDDR5X instead of GDDR7 memory, at least for the low/mid range configurations (the top-spec and enthusiast configurations AT0 and AT2 configurations will still use GDDR7 it seems).

AFAIK, RDNA5 has been cancelled as AMD is moving back to a unified architecture with their Instinct and Radeon lines.

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#212

Post by akvadrako »

mythz wrote: post #73

Really confused why the Intel and AMD both continue to struggle and yet still refuse to offer what Nvidia wont, i.e. high ram consumer GPUs. I'd much prefer paying 3x cost for 3x VRAM (48GB/$1047), 6x cost for 6x VRAM (96GB/$2094), 12x cost for 12x VRAM (192GB/$4188), etc. They'd sell like hotcakes and software support would quickly improve. At 16GB I'd still prefer to pay a premium for NVidia GPUs given its superior…

AMD Strix Halo has about 100GB of VRAM for around $1500 if that's all you care about.

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#213

Post by srmatto »

GPUs prices really surprise me. Most PC part prices have remained the same over the decades with storage and RAM actually getting cheaper. GPUs however have gotten extremely expensive. $350 used to get you a really good GPU about 20 years ago, I think top of the line was around $450-500--now it only gets you entry level. Top of the line is now $1500+!

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#214

Post by [deleted] »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #102
blitzar wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or shrink the margin down to just 50% and sell 10x the number of cards (for the week or two it would take Nvidia to announce a 5090 with 128gb)

Nvidia uses VRAM amount for market segmentation. They can't make a 128GB consumer card without cannibalizing their enterprise sales. Which means Intel or AMD making an affordable high-VRAM card is win-win. If Nvidia responds in kind, Nvidia loses a ton of revenue they'd otherwise have available to outspend their smaller competitors on R&D. If they don't, they keep more of those high-margin customers but now the ones…

[deleted]

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#215

Post by guluarte »

srmatto wrote: post #213

GPUs prices really surprise me. Most PC part prices have remained the same over the decades with storage and RAM actually getting cheaper. GPUs however have gotten extremely expensive. $350 used to get you a really good GPU about 20 years ago, I think top of the line was around $450-500--now it only gets you entry level. Top of the line is now $1500+!

all thanks to crypto and AI

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#216

Post by anthk »

pjmlp wrote: post #171
keyringlight wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UE1 was in the timeframe that 3D acceleration was only starting to get adopted, and IIRC from some interview Epic continued with a software option for UT2003/2004 (licensed pixomatic?) because they found out a lot of players were still playing their games on systems where full GPUs weren't always available, such as laptops. I know this is going back to Intel's Larrabee where they tried it, but I'd be real interested…

One possible way would be to revisit such ideas while using AVX-512, the surviving pieces out of Larrabee.

llvmpipe/lavapipe under MESA, too.

Lavapipe on Vulkan makes VKQuake playable even con Core Duo 2 systems. Just as a concept, of course. I know about software rendered Quakes since forever.

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#217

Post by rdos »

vid wrote: post #192
fwipsy wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because only AI enthusiasts want that much VRAM, and most of them will pony up for a higher-end GPU anyways? Everyone is suggesting it here because that's what they want, but I don't know if this crowd is really representative of broader market sentiment.

There are a lot of local AI hobbyists, just visit /r/LocalLLama to see how many are using 8GB cards, or all the people asking for higher RAM version of cards. This makes it mysterious since clearly CUDA is an advantage, but higher VRAM lower cost cards with decent open library support would be compelling.

There is no point in using a low-bandwidth card like the B50 for AI. Attempting to use 2x or 4x cards to load a real model will result in poor performance and low generation speed. If you don’t need a larger model, use a 3060 or 2x 3060, and you’ll get significantly better performance than the B50—so much better that the higher power consumption won’t matter (70W vs. 170W for a single card). Higher VRAM wont make the card 'better for AI'.

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#218

Post by rvba »

rkomorn wrote: post #109
drra wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never underestimate bragging rights in gamers community. Majority of us run unoptimized systems with that one great piece of gear and as long as the game runs at decent FPS and we have some bragging rights it's all ok.

Exactly. A decade ago, I put 64GB of RAM in a PC and my friend asked me why I needed that much and I replied "so I can say I have 64GB RAM". The only time usage was "high" was when I created a VM with 48GB RAM just for kicks. It was useless. But I could say I had 64GB RAM.

My work computer with Widnows, Outlook, few tabs open and Excel already craps put with 16 GB

If you hae a private computer, why wpuld you even bug something with 16GB in 2025? My 10 year old laptop had that much.

Im looking for a new laptop and Im looking at a 128GB setup - so those 200 chrome tabs can eat it, I have space to run other stuff, like those horrible electron chat apps + a game

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#219

Post by vid »

rdos wrote: post #217
vid wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of local AI hobbyists, just visit /r/LocalLLama to see how many are using 8GB cards, or all the people asking for higher RAM version of cards. This makes it mysterious since clearly CUDA is an advantage, but higher VRAM lower cost cards with decent open library support would be compelling.

There is no point in using a low-bandwidth card like the B50 for AI. Attempting to use 2x or 4x cards to load a real model will result in poor performance and low generation speed. If you don’t need a larger model, use a 3060 or 2x 3060, and you’ll get significantly better performance than the B50—so much better that the higher power consumption won’t matter (70W vs. 170W for a single card). Higher VRAM wont make the…

Who said anything about the B50?

Plenty of people use eg 2, 4 or 6 3090s to run large models at acceptable speeds.

Higher VRAM at decent (much faster than DDR5) speeds will make cards better for AI.

Re: Intel Arc Pro B50 GPU Launched at $349 for Compact Workstations

#220

Post by jeroenhd »

srmatto wrote: post #213

GPUs prices really surprise me. Most PC part prices have remained the same over the decades with storage and RAM actually getting cheaper. GPUs however have gotten extremely expensive. $350 used to get you a really good GPU about 20 years ago, I think top of the line was around $450-500--now it only gets you entry level. Top of the line is now $1500+!

Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and AI ruined the GPU market.
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