A new leak suggests that Intel could introduce its new “Battlemage” GPUs next month. By materializing them in December, the group would then overtake Nvidia and AMD.
Intel would be in the starting blocks to present new GPUs to us. This is slowly being confirmed as a new information leak – this time from leaker (and cryptocurrency miner) Tomasz Gawroński – suggests that the firm would indeed have things to tell us next month.
On X, the person concerned shared an image of teasing from the Japanese blog Gazlog. If it is difficult at this stage to confirm 100% the authenticity of this visual, the latter reports a presentation of Intel ARC “Battlemage” GPUs in December 2024. A plausible lead, corroborated by previous leaks, but also by the recent passage of a “Battlemage” graphics card on Geekbench.
We will nevertheless remain cautious: at this stage, Intel has still not officially communicated on the launch of its first dedicated “Battlemage” cards… which still seems surprising if we are only one month away from their arrival on the market. the market.
Intel almost ready to renew its GPU offering on desktop PCs?
Let us specify in any case that this launch would indeed concern the offer desktop from Intel, and therefore the group’s desktop graphics cards. The “Battlemage” GPU architecture has in fact already been added to the lineup from Intel, but discreetly, through the “Xe2” iGPUs integrated into the new Intel “Lunar Lake” mobile processors (aka the Core Ultra 200V).
In detail, Intel would have three “Battlemage” GPUs under its belt: the Arc BMG-31, Arc BMG-20, and Arc BMG-G10; and we recently learned that the most high-end model (BMG-31) would have a maximum of 32 Xe2 graphics cores.
The first benchmarks that appeared online also suggest that these new chips would be able to effectively compete with AMD’s RDNA 3.5 solutions. On the other hand, they would still lag significantly behind Nvidia’s current cards and could have difficulty fully competing with the new RDNA 4 chips, expected within a few months from AMD.
For Intel, the launch (understand the critical and commercial reception) of the “Battlemage” cards will probably determine the future of its graphics division. Given its significant financial difficulties, it is difficult to see how the firm could continue to invest in this area in the event of the failure of this next generation of desktop GPUs.
Finally, note that by marketing these new GPU chips from December, Intel would gain an advantage over Nvidia and AMD by ensuring good exposure just before the holidays. However, it remains to be seen what the response will be from Nvidia and AMD, who are due to announce their respective Blackwell and RDNA4 graphics cards at the start of 2025.
