With the Arc B580 and B570, Intel introduced a new suite of upscaling and interpolating technologies under XeSS 2 - now sub-divided into XeSS-SR, XeSS-FG, and XeSS-LL. Modders over at Nexus Mods (h/t VideoCardz) have somehow managed to obtain the DLL files for these new modules possibly from leaked game patches that support XeSS 2. But don't get your hopes up as XeSS 2 implementation mostly hinges on official support from game developers; you can't swap existing XeSS 1.x files, so these leaked libraries are just a virtual paperweight - at least for now.
The plugin archive hosted by Nexus Mods aims to offer the latest DLL files for all major upscaling technologies, including DLSS, FSR 3, and XeSS. Intel has slightly revamped the naming schematic for its XeSS 2 stack, subdividing it into XeSS-SR (Super Resolution), XeSS-FG (Frame Generation), and XeSS-LL (Low Latency).
The latest official XeSS SDK release from Intel is version 1.3.1 - an edition older than what Nexus Mods has currently listed (version 1.3.2.38). Without proper patch notes, it is hard to discern what Intel has changed under the hood, however, the XeSS SDK (SR) at 67.8MB should be an easy drop-in replacement for older versions. The newer Frame Generation SDK (63.6MB) and the XeLL SDK (164.2kB) - the ones everyone is excited about - will likely not work until the developers explicitly add support - so we're back to square one.
XeSS-FG will work on all Arc GPUs except for Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake-S since their iGPUs (Integrated GPU) lack XMX cores. Team Blue's implementation of Frame Generation incorporates optical flow and motion vector reprojection - processed by its XMX or AI acceleration units. As it stands, only eight games are expected to get XeSS 2 support but this number will likely increase as Arc adoption rises.
With a fine-tuned and upgraded Xe2 architecture and plenty of VRAM, Intel's B580 will take on the RTX 4060 - with first-party numbers putting Team Blue ahead by 10%. There seems to be a lot of headroom for overclocking; Intel's own slides show that the B580 can hit an average GPU clock of 3.15 GHz - with the caveat of a higher power draw since of course, the B580 isn't exactly the most efficient GPU in the world.
Nonetheless, the Arc Battlemage B580 will retail starting from December 13 at $249 from AIBs and Intel in the form of a Limited Edition model. The embargo will be lifted a day earlier - on the 12th - so keep your eyes peeled for our review of the B580 and see if it can reignite the once-forgotten budget GPU market.
