Intel to Tease Arc "Battlemage" Discrete GPU in December?

[btarunr]

Intel is expected to debut its next-generation Arc "Battlemage" discrete GPU in December 2024, or ahead of the 2025 CES, HotHardware reports, citing Golden Pig Upgrade, a reliable source with GPU leaks. The source says that they expect "wonderful performance" for the GPU. Intel has a lot invested in its PC graphics division, across not just its two-year-old Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs, but also the integrated graphics solutions it's been launching with its Core Ultra processor generations. It debuted the DirectX 12 Ultimate-capable Xe-LPG graphics architecture with Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" and Arc Graphics branding, which it carried forward to the Core Ultra Series 200 "Arrow Lake" on the desktop platform. Meanwhile, "Battlemage" got debuted as the iGPU of the Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" mobile processor, which posted gaming performance beating that of the Ryzen 8000 "Hawk Point" processor, but falling short of the Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point."

Intel is expected to tap into a fairly new foundry node for the Arc "Battlemage" discrete GPU series. Its chips could strike a performance/Watt and performance/price inflection point in the performance segment, that drives the most volumes for NVIDIA and AMD. It is this exact segment that AMD has withdrawn from the enthusiast segment to focus on, with its next-generation Radeon RDNA 4 generation. With "Alchemist," Intel already laid a strong foundation for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI, and the company is only expected to advance on these fronts further. Could "Battlemage" and "Granite Rapids" go down as the most exciting products from Intel in 2024? We should find out next month.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Onasi]

I mean, “wonderful performance” can mean anything. I am sure there was quite a bit of wondering done by many people when Arrow Lake reviews started pouring in. Bazinga.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I think this is a bit too early, considering how shitty things are going to Intel atm. Anything that goes wrong with the next gpu launch will sink Intel into an even deeper hole.

 

[SPARSTE96]

Intel surely isn't stopping Nvidia or even Amd, they are so late to the market everytime, their GPUs will be outclassed by Nvidia 5000s and Radeon 8000s....

 

[RootinTootinPootin]

wonderful leap backwards in performance like what the Desktop release did..

 

[Paganstomp]

Posting a sound of what a cricket sounds like in 3....2...1....

 

[Hyderz]

rumor says it has 3 models.. of battlemage

 

[Vayra86]

I mean, “wonderful performance” can mean anything. I am sure there was quite a bit of wondering done by many people when Arrow Lake reviews started pouring in. Bazinga.

I bet Raptor Lake owners are still wondering what performance they really have under the hood now. Intel, the mystery chip company.

Honestly with Intel doing their share of AMD-like failures (I think we'll conclude their recent affairs are far worse than Bulldozer ever was, after all those didn't degrade out of the box...) my faith in them ever getting some semblance of perf parity with Nvidia or AMD on GPUs is Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero right now. Fatality... comes to mind.

 

[usiname]

Intel surely isn't stopping Nvidia or even Amd, they are so late to the market everytime, their GPUs will be outclassed by Nvidia 5000s and Radeon 8000s....

They will be outclassed by RTX3000 and RX6000, let alone 2 gens ahead

 

[LittleBro]

Crystal ball output: Intel discrete GPUs will either be cancelled after Battlemage, or transformed into business focusing on workstation workloads. Intel Xe architecture will remain a part of Intel iGPUs only. Intel can't get rid of their iGPUs but surely can (and shareholders want them to) cancel their discrete GPUs. After foundry business it's maybe the next worst Intel's segment in terms of profits.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I keep my eyes on this, AMD and nvidia offering is pretty dismal, if they perform well and good price I don't mind buying this.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

I'm all for Intel! If they can do well above Nvidia's current mid-range graphics cards, and release Battlemage enough cheap it would be a big success.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I mean, “wonderful performance” can mean anything.

You bet. "Wonderful" is usually a synonym for good or even excellent.

Intel surely isn't stopping Nvidia or even Amd

That's what people said about AMD 8 years ago and yet here we are. Anyone can make a comeback, hell look at what happened a few days ago.

 

[Quicks]

Too little too late again, same as last time. Should have released this atleast last month already. You can just as well wait and see what AMD and Nvidia had instore come Jan.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Too little too late again, same as last time.

Yeah, people have said THAT about AMD and NVidia too.

How about everyone withholds their narrow judgements until AFTER the products are released and the benchmarks are in, eh? I mean, what, that's only logical.

 

[capdauntless]

The Arc A770 is a pretty good card. Roughly rx6600 xt perf with leaps to higher cards perfs in certain situations. And the prices are fantastic. Its sad to see so many ignoring them as they are a great budget high performance 1080p card. Id have no issue buying a battlemage gpu.

 

[jak_2456]

I really hope this works out since there's currently a major gap in the market for affordable GPUs. NVIDIA and AMD haven't really brought anything worthwhile to the table for a long time at this point. It seems to me that the best option for a sub-$300 GPU is just to buy a used card. Most cards for sale these days around that price point are last-gen cards.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

The Arc A770 is a pretty good card. Roughly rx6600 xt perf with leaps to higher cards perfs in certain situations. And the prices are fantastic. Its sad to see so many ignoring them as they are a great budget high performance 1080p card. Id have no issue buying a battlemage gpu.

One of the latest tests:

Between RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 ti with ray tracing enabled.
More here(russian!)

 

[kondamin]

If they make one 32GB and inferencing isn't bad it will sell

 

[lexluthermiester]

If they make one 32GB and inferencing isn't bad it will sell

Why 32GB?

 

[Bobaganoosh]

I mean, if they can even hit 4070ti or better performance with good pricing they should sell lots of them. They went through the phase of bad drivers and bugs and if Battlemage launches with stability that A770 has now, it would definitely be an option people would consider. It was a hard sell when ARC first launched and stability wasn't there at all, but there have been a lot of good updates.

I really think it all comes down to price no matter where the performance is. If people think the only way they can succeed is buy competing with 4090/5090, they're wrong. There's a reason the 3060 is still top of the Steam charts. The low-end has been stagnating and forgotten and if they can offer a good performance increase at the entry level pricing, it'll be an easy winner. XeSS looks better than FSR and they've had less time to work on it with hardware...they're RT is better than AMD too, so if Nvidia keeps handicapping their low end for maximum profit and AMD doesn't really compete from a performance perspective, Battlemage can wipe the floor with both of them on the highest-volume segment of the market.

My problem here with everything I just said: There are a lot of "if" statements lol. I haven't seen any performance leaks and I have no idea where they're going to price it. So we'll just have to wait and find out I guess.

 

[GoldenX]

If they continue writing drivers one AAA game at a time, this will be another DoA. If they actually start caring about API compliance, it may have a chance against whatever overpriced snorefest AMD releases next.

Supposedly Xe2 fixed the broken hardware of the past, so it's entirely on how much management lets the driver team actually work. Regardless of the result, I already got burned with an EoL Xe1 after 2 years of support, so don't count me in, Intel.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

You bet. "Wonderful" is usually a synonym for good or even excellent.


That's what people said about AMD 8 years ago and yet here we are. Anyone can make a comeback, hell look at what happened a few days ago.

Intel has fallen behind before and come back. The most recent and obvious one was the P4 vs AMD64 era. Intel got crushed. It wasn't even that intel lacked 64 support the chips just ran hot and blew and the IMC on the 64 was very important. Every claimed intel could not go back as long as they were stuck with an FSB + NB solution. Que Core2 Duo which was nothing more than a rework of their Pentium M mobile line out of their Haifa Israel team. Not only was it using tech they already had they still won despite being stuck with an FSB + NB solution and crushed AMDs AM2 solution. Then when the Core2 Quad came out AMD fired back with Phenom and it was an utter disaster. They later released the Phenom II and that didn't do much to beat intel back (I'm skipping over the dual socket AM2 (quad father) board which was a cluster fuck and still lost to the Core2 Quad). Then intel was off to the races with x58 and then the 2600k and AMD was stranded.

They trade blows and it comes and goes. Though over a long time intel has consistently put up more wins and superior products. The GPU space is very different. Going back not to far but the only real win AMD has produced was back when they were ATi with the 9700pro and the 9800pro. Even then it was less that those products were great than the nvidia FX 5800 was a disaster. It was the first dual slot card, extremely loud, sucked too much power, and performed worse. The FX series got better but it wasn't till the 6800 series came out that nvidia pulled ahead and since then they haven't looked back and ran away with entire GPU market. Fermi was the only screw up but even then it wasn't a big enough one to really hurt.

AMD is stuck in an odd place where they only come out ahead when their competition shits the bed. And then they are ahead right up until their competitors get their act together and the situation changes.

 

[Vayra86]

I mean, if they can even hit 4070ti or better performance with good pricing they should sell lots of them

I think that's naive. They might hit that perf, but then there's the support, driver and continuity issue. Would you trust an Intel in its current state to keep supporting this stuff? Even AMD still isn't trusted as it should be after many years of solid drivers. No single GPU opponent can match Nvidia's consistency, and this is seriously something people always overlook; its really not about the hardware entirely, its about brand and trust. Look at how long it took Zen to gain a reasonable pull in the market. And so far, Intel's GPU record consistency is just about zero. They had a rocky launch, and then a whole lot of stuff happened that didn't play out well for that launch either.

Intel has fallen behind before and come back. The most recent and obvious one was the P4 vs AMD64 era. Intel got crushed. It wasn't even that intel lacked 64 support the chips just ran hot and blew and the IMC on the 64 was very important. Every claimed intel could not go back as long as they were stuck with an FSB + NB solution. Que Core2 Duo which was nothing more than a rework of their Pentium M mobile line out of their Haifa Israel team. Not only was it using tech they already had they still won despite being stuck with an FSB + NB solution and crushed AMDs AM2 solution. Then when the Core2 Quad came out AMD fired back with Phenom and it was an utter disaster. They later released the Phenom II and that didn't do much to beat intel back (I'm skipping over the dual socket AM2 (quad father) board which was a cluster fuck and still lost to the Core2 Quad). Then intel was off to the races with x58 and then the 2600k and AMD was stranded.

They trade blows and it comes and goes. Though over a long time intel has consistently put up more wins and superior products. The GPU space is very different. Going back not to far but the only real win AMD has produced was back when they were ATi with the 9700pro and the 9800pro. Even then it was less that those products were great than the nvidia FX 5800 was a disaster. It was the first dual slot card, extremely loud, sucked too much power, and performed worse. The FX series got better but it wasn't till the 6800 series came out that nvidia pulled ahead and since then they haven't looked back and ran away with entire GPU market. Fermi was the only screw up but even then it wasn't a big enough one to really hurt.

AMD is stuck in an odd place where they only come out ahead when their competition shits the bed. And then they are ahead right up until their competitors get their act together and the situation changes.

I think we shouldn't discount the 7950 and 7970 either. Those sold like hotcakes. AMD really put up quite a fight with GCN during the Kepler days.

 

[Bobaganoosh]

I think that's naive. They might hit that perf, but then there's the support, driver and continuity issue. Would you trust an Intel in its current state to keep supporting this stuff? Even AMD still isn't trusted as it should be after many years of solid drivers. No single GPU opponent can match Nvidia's consistency, and this is seriously something people always overlook; its really not about the hardware entirely, its about brand and trust. Look at how long it took Zen to gain a reasonable pull in the market. And so far, Intel's GPU record consistency is just about zero. They had a rocky launch, and then a whole lot of stuff happened that didn't play out well for that launch either.


I think we shouldn't discount the 7950 and 7970 either. Those sold like hotcakes. AMD really put up quite a fight with GCN during the Kepler days.

Good points, but I'd trust them to support their products as much as the next company. Nvidia drivers have actually gotten worse the last few years. They seem to have a completely botched unusable driver every now and again or some good chunk of users who can't use them for some reason or another. Nvidia is pushing it's latest drivers for a security reason, but I can't update my 4080 laptop to those or the screen will flicker nonstop (the drivers included a fix to this problem that I never had until they "fixed" it lol).

The thing with entry level is that you have a huge variety of shoppers, including from system vendors ala ibuypower, cyperpower, etc. that either don't know what they're shopping for or can't afford to be picky either way. If they even look at reviews (which it's hard to get some people to read reviews anyway), and the cards review well, especially on performance/price, then yes I think people will buy them. I think if you look at pre-built buyers out there (and a good chunk of DIYers) in the budget-build and even some mid-range...they're really just trying to get the best thing they can get for the price. They don't really care about Nvidia/AMD/Intel and honestly they shouldn't as brand loyalty can lead to bad places lol. So (here we go with the if statements again)...IF Intel can launch Battlemage at a good perf/price than I believe they will sell well. Nvidia owns the top-end and for years AMD could take most of the mid-range or low end. They could both say "well it's us or nobody" and that's their prerogative, but that's where a third vendor can really shake things up....assuming again that the if-statements are met.