A real surprise – Intel Arc Pro B50 in the test and big workstation duel under 450 euros

1 - Introduction, unboxing and technical data 2 - Test system and equipment 3 - Teardown: PCB, topology and components 4 - Teardown: Cooling solution 5 - Teardown: Material analysis and ASTM TIM testing 6 - Autodesk AutoCAD 7 - Autodesk Inventor Pro 8 - PTC Creo 9 - Dassault Systèmes Solidworks 10 - Autodesk Maya 11 - SPECviewperf 15 (2025) 12 - Adobe Photoshop 26.10 13 - Adobe After Effects 2025 14 - Adobe Premiere Pro 25.41 15 - AI Benchmarks (AI Vision, Image, Text) 16 - Rendering 17 - Temperatues, clock rates, power draw and fan speed 18 - Summary and conclusion

Summary of the test results Intel Arc Pro B50, AMD Radeon Pro W7500 and NVIDIA RTX A1000

The three workstation graphics cards tested – Intel Arc Pro B50, AMD Radeon Pro W7500 and NVIDIA RTX A1000 – belong to the entry-level class and are aimed at CAD, DCC and light AI workloads. The test included classic ISV benchmarks (AutoCAD, Inventor, Creo, Solidworks, Maya), SPECviewperf 15, practice-oriented PugetBench workloads (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro) and UL Procyon AI benchmarks for vision, image and text generation. In addition, the design, cooling and use of materials were analyzed and temperature, clock and performance profiles were measured. There is a clear division of labor in the CAD-oriented benchmarks and Intel is consistently ahead in the content creation benchmarks of the Puget suite. The Arc Pro B50 dominates in Photoshop (13,506 points vs. 12,758 for AMD and 12,397 for NVIDIA), is just ahead of the RTX A1000 in After Effects, while AMD falls well behind. Premiere Pro shows particularly clear differences: Intel achieves 85,302 points, NVIDIA 72,170 and AMD 68,497.

The biggest surprise is the AI performance: Thanks to OpenVINO, the Arc Pro B50 scores massively in all AI workloads. In Stable Diffusion, Intel achieves 757 points, NVIDIA with TensorRT 564 and AMD 467. The lead is even stronger in large language models such as Phi 3.5 (2589 points vs. 1114 NVIDIA and 729 AMD), Mistral 7B (2479 points vs. 967 NVIDIA and 518 AMD) and LLaMA 2 (2402 points; NVIDIA fails due to the VRAM, AMD only delivers 129 points). This shows that 16 GB of VRAM is mandatory, while the 8 GB cards fail at the latest with complex models. In the average index across all benchmarks, the Arc Pro B50 achieves 100% (reference), while the Radeon Pro W7500 and the RTX A1000 are almost on a par at 95%.

The overall result for the Arc Pro B50 is already very positive. It should be noted that the value in the Solidworks benchmark was massively distorted by the lack of certification and the result is significantly below the real performance to be expected. If Solidworks had been certified, the overall result for Intel would have been even more clearly in favor of the B50. Intel has promised to clarify this point, and as soon as certification is available, I will carry out a follow-up test.

If Solidworks were omitted due to the lack of certification, the overall picture would be as follows:

Summary of circuit board analysis, cooler and material

The Arc Pro B50’s power supply uses six phases for the GPU, a single phase for the GDDR6 memory and another for the 5-volt rail. The input is exclusively via the PCIe slot, runs through a shunt for current measurement and is monitored by an INA229. A GigaDevice MCU takes control of the voltage converter, sensors and presumably also the DisplayPort output. MP86957 DrMOS and space-saving dual coils are used for the GPU phases, which optimizes layout and EMC, but makes cooling more difficult. The memory VRM follows a simpler design with single inductance.

The main cooler is made of pure copper with a secondary carrier made of aluminum-nickel composite. The heat sink dissipates efficiently, while the carrier provides mechanical stability. The backplate is made of a thermal expansion-optimized aluminium alloy and is powder-coated in blue. The GPU uses a metal-organic PTM pad with 5.17 W/mK and moderate interface resistance. RAMs and VRMs rely on classic silicone pads with typical compression properties. The combination of differentiated TIMs and a sophisticated mix of materials results in a compact but functional cooling design for workstation purposes.

Conclusion

The Intel Arc Pro B50 clearly outperforms the competition in this price range in the overall result. The 16 GB VRAM and strong integration with OpenVINO give it a clear advantage in AI and content creation workloads. It is also impressive in DCC applications such as Maya or Photoshop. In the classic CAD benchmarks, AMD remains stronger in Creo and Solidworks, while NVIDIA scores in AutoCAD and Inventor. On average, the Radeon Pro W7500 and RTX A1000 are almost on a par, but can no longer keep up in AI and rendering workloads due to their 8 GB limit.

In terms of cooling, the Arc Pro B50 remains inconspicuous and even tolerable in terms of noise emissions; it is never thermally limited, but only by the slot power budget. Clock rates and fan control are stable, the temperatures for GPU and memory are absolutely within the green range. The figures in brackets would be the final result without Solidworks:

This makes the Arc Pro B50 not only the most powerful card in the test, but also the cheapest. The price-performance ratio is clearly in favor of Intel. AMD and NVIDIA can keep up in some areas, but are more expensive on average and offer less memory.