Since their inception, ASRock has been known for their unique take on things. As such it should come as no surprise that their shipping container is equally unique. Mixing equal parts conservative practicality with libertine (bordering on Bacchian) revelry and disregard for marketplace norms, this is a box that excludes both confidence and a sense of whimsy. Put bluntly, ASRock has pretty much encapsulated Intel ARC’s duality damn near perfectly.
What we mean by this is on the one hand an… “older” professional-orientated consumer would not be embarrassed bringing this box up to the checkout at their local bricks n mortar, and yet by the same token a “I iz a 1337 gam3r” would equally feel comfortable doing an unboxing ticktock video on it. That is a tough combination to pull off and yet that is what Intel wants the ARC series to be able to do, and what ASRock has been able to convey via a simple box. Mix in excellent, bordering on insane for the price range, internal protection and there is almost nothing to complain about on this side of things.
So much so the only nitpick we can think of is the lack of a driver’s disc. Yes. Intel is quick, dare we say ‘aggressively’, updating/upgrading their drivers so any drivers on any disc will be outdated… but something is always better than nothing. As such, we strongly recommend making sure your custom Windows 10 (or if you have a traumatic brain injury Windows 11) installation drive includes a copy of the ARC drivers.
Moving on.
ASRock came into being, instead of just being the internal “think outside the box” division of ASUS, because certain employees were not happy with the overly conservative “we are the new IBM” thinking that is ASUS. They wanted to take risks (and reap the rewards). They wanted to Think Differently (without being sued by Apple for saying that). They wanted to satisfy the needs of more buyers than ASUS was willing to cater to. That is why they offer AMD-based video cards, and that is why they offer Intel-based cards too.
That is why we are not surprised in the least that ASRock is one of the first to offer a B570 class card. We say this as on the surface the B570 does not make a lot of sense. The BattleMage 570 core is “nothing more” than a cut-down B580 that has also been equally handicapped in both overall TDP and memory bus. To be a bit more precise the B570 offers about 90 percent of the B580 processing components (18 vs 20 Xe cores), running at about 90’sih percent of the clock frequencies (2500 vs 2850MHz). About 83.3 percent of the memory bus (160 vs 192 bit) with 90 percent of the total onboard GDDR6 memory (10 vs 12GB). All wrapped up in a ~79 percent TDP package… but in return for all of those cuts also only has ~86 percent of the MSRP.
On paper that is a long… loong winded way of saying “budget version”. Arguably enough it probably should have been B300 series branded and not B500. Especially the odd-ball 160-bit bus it uses… which Team Green has not used since the GTX 1060 days, and Team Red since RX 6700 days.
That however is missing the forest for the trees.
For whatever reason, Intel missed the boat on the B580’s MSRP. Yes. It is an insane value. So much so it makes a mockery of similarly priced Duopoly options, and it is not until you go up to the 3-bill range that you can find its equal. Even then it’s still a great option. That however does not make up for the fact it is above the magic $250 mark that many builds have as their hard cut-off limit for the GPU. So yeah, that five bucks over budget stings.
The B570 is below it. Below it, enough companies like ASRock can work the voodoo that they do to create highly customized variants which are also well below the two-fiddy mark. In this instance that means taking a custom cooling solution and letting Intel’s auto-clocking magic go to work. To do this some will argue that ASRock used their A770 Challenger cooling solution. Others would argue that it’s a variant of the RX 7600 XT Challenger that has been used. Based upon overall weight (720g vs 747g); dimensions (249 x 132 x 41mm vs. 6600’s 267 x 130 x 41mm); and overall appearance (especially the notched corner in the fascia) we fall more into the latter camp than the former but think ASRock took a ‘little bit of column A with a bit of column b’ approach when making the Challenger B570 OC.
We say this for a few reasons beyond paper specifications. The front fans are 100mm versions of ASRocks “Stripped Axial Fan”. Just as they are in the A770 and 6700 Challenger options… and thus are highly advanced axial fans that focus the air downwards and through the 5 heat pipe, dual fin array cooling solution (which also is used in both A770 and 6700 Challengers).
The fascia is a combination of plastic that while ~27mm over PCI-SIG standards is pretty enough to get away with being a bit chunky. Especially with the integrated LED strip that the Challenger A770 lacks, but the 6700 has…‘ish… as the B570’s is different enough to be considered better by many including ourselves.
Whereas the backplate is influenced more by the A770 than the terrible 6700.
Put another way the ASRock Challenger B570 OC is the Challenger B580 OC with just a couple of memory IC’s removed and the B580 core swapped for the B570. This is a very, very Good Thing™ to say the least… as it means ASRock was able to keep the MSRP reasonable (by 2025 standards) and yet at the same time offer buyers a card that is A) a 2-slot cooling solution that is B) easily capable of handling 200’ish watts of heat output. Which means temperatures are going to be extremely low. Noise? What noise. The fans barely spin up above a whisper for the vast majority of scenarios. Mix in the fact that it uses a ‘Super Alloy’ power delivery subsystem that is very reminiscent of the B580’s and for a sub-250 card in 2025 that does not spell ‘budget-friendly’ that spells ‘overkill’.
Zooming in from the ‘fifty-foot view’ let us start with the arguably important… but least important part of any value-orientated video card: the aesthetics. We say it is important but certainly not critically important because… well… lowered expectations are the name of the game when dealing with cards that cost as (relatively) little as what the ASRock Challenger B570 10GB OC does. The fact of the matter is while builders will try their best to make the final build as ‘pretty’ as possible, functionality is more important… and many good mid-tower cases do not come with large windows. Making a lot of higher-end build’s concerns moot. Furthermore, value-builds rarely have room in the budget for extra LEDs and glowy-showy accessories. As such as long as the card does not look like the “south end of northbound mule” its probably going to be ‘good enough’.
With that preamble taken care of the ASRock Challenger B570 OC may not be able to compete against cards costing twice or more what it does, but it is extremely pretty by the standards of its corner of the marketplace. This is a card that is (just) pretty enough that younger generations of builders (and PC users) will find it pleasing and yet it is also (just) conservative enough that it will not make us Gen X’ers feel old when using it in a build.
Yes. ASRock managed to make a budget card whose aesthetics are flexible enough to satisfy a wider range of buyers than any “value” card has any right being. To be blunt. No. It does not look like 70-class card… but it smokes the typical 50-class and many a 60-class card from the Duopoly. This is a card that we would feel comfortable using in a professional’s build that needed the transcoding horsepower (but couldn’t / didn’t want to pony up for a B580); all we would ‘need’ to do is turn off the integrated LED lightbar. It is a card that we would feel comfortable using in an HTPC for the typical Joe/Jane sixpack; all we would need to do is… install it. This is a card that we would feel comfortable using in a franken-Apple clone build; all we would need to do is make sure the proper software for said LEDs would work and allow for the intended light show. It is even a card that we would use in a entry-level “friends don’t let friends use consoles” (entry-level) gaming builds. Once again, all we would have to do is make sure the pretty lights are in sync with the other pretty lights. No fuss. No muss. Pretty much pain-free builds. Being able to create a card that can do all that is rather tough to do when talking about a build cost as low as what the ASRock Challenger B570 OC has… and yet ASRock did precisely that and offers all that. Color us impressed and many a third-party duopoly card builder should take their queues from the Challenger series in general and the B570 (and 580) in specific.
Moving on.
Being flexible enough is all well and fine, but at the end of the day, a card can not just be pretty. It has to be functional. Here, ASRock has once again set the bar damn high. First is the backplate. Its alloy. Not plastic. On a card that will cost only a smidgen more than 2 bills. That alone is impressive, and yet its use of metal is actually the least impressive part. Instead, it is the design of it that impresses. Taking major queues from more expensive cards this B570 allows for a ton of “pass-through” airflow. To be precise, not only is the endmost / furthest away from the PCIe bracket fan easily able to exhaust its air through the cooling array a chunk of the rearmost also can. This massive reduces static pressure which in turn reduces fan noise.
Furthermore, it reduces fan noise not just because the static pressure is reduced but because the heated air quickly exits the cooling array. Mix in the fact that while the fans’ are not rocking a ‘focusing ring’ (and instead are individual blades) the semi-transparent blades (to act as LED diffusers) do have numerous advanced features to… focus the airflow and reduce ‘wind noise’. This in turn means these “100mm” (nominal 95 with a 2.5mm gap around them for flexion… and manufacturing tolerances) have the luxury of being able to rotate slower than the typical el-cheapo dumpster fire fans most el-cheapo video cards (typically) use. Now if they were only dual ball bearings (for extended longevity) we would have zero issues with these pretty and (relatively) potent fans.
To be fair, some of the impressiveness of these fans stems from the fact that they are attached to an overkill custom cooling solution. To use an analogy you can be rather mediocre in your skills but if you are on a veritable ‘dream team’ you too will look like a star. Thus, the real start of the show is not the fans but the custom cooling array. Here one will find a dual fin array cooling solution that is (in total), ~30mm tall, ~112mm wide, and ~230mm long. Better still this is a dual fin array that is rocking five heat pipes to further enhance overall cooling. That is pretty much overkill by modern standards when talking about cooling a piddly little 150TDP card. Especially when paired with a design that goes out of its way to enhance cooling potential.
Mix in the fact that the fascia, whose main job is to both protect and focus the air for said fin array, is not oversized. A lot of… “value-orientated” video cards over the years have enhanced their overall footprint by using an oversized fascia. Typically on the (sadly not mistaken) belief that most people believe that ‘bigger is always better’. Once again. On its own, a nice bonus feature but from a holistic point of view just underscores how much attention to detail, and OCD’edness, the ASRock Challenger B570 OC design team got right.
To be honest the only things that are bog-standard about this premium, without a premium asking price, is the power connector and the ports. Of the two we have no real issue with the ports. Three full-size DPI + 1 full-size HDMI is darn decent. Especially when they are all on the same slot level, thus allowing some waste airflow to easily exhaust the case via cutouts in the second row. The power however is a bit disappointing. To be precise, while not overjoyed by the modern trend of sticking them in the center, and recessing them, is not what we are talking about. That is what it is, and the pros mostly outweigh the cons of this decision.
Neither are we talking about the fact that it is an ‘old school’ PCIe 8-pin and a not newer standard. The newer standard is a dumpster fire and we actively seek out cards that do not use it. Thus we like the fact it is old school.
What we are disappointed by is the fact that this is an OC branded card… and yet it is handicapped by the amount of power it can call upon. Yes. This is a 150TDP card. Yes, the single 8-pin can deliver that. Yes. In theory,y the PCIe slot itself can provide another 75 watts. An additional 50% overhead “should” be enough for any card. In reality, the amount of consistent and clean power that can be delivered via the PCIe slot will greatly vary from motherboard to motherboard… especially when dealing with entry-level motherboards which invariably cut corners when it comes to power filtering! ASRock knows this and they should have included an additional 6-pin header. They did not and that is a bit disappointing.
To be fair, if you use a good motherboard with good power filtering this card can go like a scalded cat. So much so it can easily overclock itself without worry about temperature or power stability. That too is impressive, and rather rare for the entry-level corner of the marketplace. As such, when taken as a whole the ASRock Challenger B570 OC does prove that ASRock is not just made of excellent motherboards but can indeed hang with the big dogs of the industry. Hang with them and even give their own unique take on things. Color us rather impressed with how far ASRock has come since its humble beginnings.