New Battlemage leaks suggest Intel hasn't abandoned plans for a high-powered Arc GPU

[emorphy]

Rumor mill: Rumors have been flying about Intel's next-gen Arc GPU, with recent leaks claiming that Battlemage will focus strictly on the low-to-mid tier sector. Newer information suggests that Intel will be bringing a powerful variant to the market after all.

Signs of life have emerged for Intel's Battlemage high-end graphics cards. A few months ago, YouTube rumor brokers had given it up for dead. These new leaks come from @momomo_us on X, who shared several shipment manifests, including one for Battlemage showing a pair of desktop (Xe2-HPG) graphics cards, one codenamed BMG-G10 and the other BMG-G21.

Until now, the fate of Intel's Battlemage graphics cards looked grim. YouTube leakers, including RedGamingTech and Moore's Law Is Dead, reported that Intel was scaling back its plans for these next-gen GPUs although the details varied depending on the leaker.

10th Gen SKU memo pic.twitter.com/DC7qoTKLkW

– 188å· (@momomo_us) May 8, 2020

RedGamingTech said that Intel was considering discontinuing the enthusiast class GPU, which was expected to feature 56 Xe cores, known as G10. Financial viability was the reason. He noted that the average person doesn't want to spend $1500 on a graphics card.

Moore's Law Is Dead shared a master document from an anonymous source outlining Intel's existing plans for Battlemage. It said that while the company still plans to make desktop and workstation cards, it has canceled mobile versions.

Based on these rumors and others, the general assumption was that Intel is opting to focus on producing Battlemage cards for mid-to-lower tier systems. Of course, the market should not take the leaked shipping manifests as gospel. TechRadar points out that it's intriguing to see G10 again, but we don't know what GPU is behind the codename.

It's been almost two years since Intel pretended to launch Alchemist and we still have no news on Battlemage ðÂ¥² https://t.co/J5KYUDoTVr

– Kepler (@Kepler_L2) March 21, 2024

Some smaller versions are on Sisoft...I guess they are coming. Single-float GP Compute looks quite good for just 160VE/192VE. Doesn't tell much about the release though, I guess anything between Q4 2024 and Q2 2025 is a possibility.

– Michael (@miktdt) March 24, 2024

Yet another leak adds credence to the idea that Intel hasn't abandoned its previous plans for Battlemage. One X user spotted new Intel Battlemage GPUs on SiSoftware Sandra. One was the Xe2-HPG variant aimed at the discrete graphics segment, and the other was the Xe2-LPG variant designated for integrated graphics for upcoming CPUs such as Lunar Lake.

Our only official information is a roadmap presentation slide showing that Intel has slated its upcoming Arc Battlemage GPUs for release sometime this year. It was part of Intel's keynote to mark the Japanese launch of the Meteor Lake CPUs. The presentation focused primarily on the company's AI-related ambitions, but one slide contained a section for GPUs that featured an image of a Battlemage graphics chip. It marked the first time Intel publicly indicated that the new dedicated GPUs would launch in 2024.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/102454-new-battlemage-leaks-suggest-intel-hasnt-abandoned-plans.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Intel really needs to hit it out of the park on this one, not just in driver quality but outright performance. The A770 wasnt mad but topping out at just mid range doesnt grab headlines. Give us something 4080 level, even if just a limited flagship run, and it will get people interested. And actually roll them out! Any interest I could have had in the A380, for instance, died on the vine because intel took SO long to roll them out that the competition surpassed them.

I really do want them to succeed, since Nvidia is proprietary and AMD doesnt care about lower end users anymore. Their high end is still decent, as is the mid range, but they play the same pricing games as nvidia does.

 

[Burty117]

This is sort of on topic, sort of not, has anyone gotten a dedicated intel GPU transcoding for Plex?

Was thinking of picking up an A380 to replace an old Quadro I currently have in the server as it’ll do AV1 decoding and encoding but I’ve not seen much online of really anyone using Plex and Intel’s GPU’s.

Tempted to just pick one up as a second hand A380 is pretty cheap.

 

[Kashim]

Intel really needs to hit it out of the park on this one, not just in driver quality but outright performance. The A770 wasnt mad but topping out at just mid range doesnt grab headlines. Give us something 4080 level, even if just a limited flagship run, and it will get people interested. And actually roll them out! Any interest I could have had in the A380, for instance, died on the vine because intel took SO long to roll them out that the competition surpassed them.

I really do want them to succeed, since Nvidia is proprietary and AMD doesnt care about lower end users anymore. Their high end is still decent, as is the mid range, but they play the same pricing games as nvidia does.

If Intel could do all those things on your wish list I'm sure they would do it tomorrow. The problem is that Intel has been a mess for years now. Their process nodes are way behind TSMC even if they refuse to admit it. Their track record of drivers is just downright awful. It's going to take a long time to get their ducks in a row, if they ever manage it. It would be nice to have a serious 3rd player in the discrete GPU market, but I just don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe in another five years things might be different.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

If Intel could do all those things on your wish list I'm sure they would do it tomorrow. The problem is that Intel has been a mess for years now. Their process nodes are way behind TSMC even if they refuse to admit it. Their track record of drivers is just downright awful. It's going to take a long time to get their ducks in a row, if they ever manage it. It would be nice to have a serious 3rd player in the discrete GPU market, but I just don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe in another five years things might be different.

I think they could do it. Their architecture needs some ironing, the LPG-2 graphics in meteor lake look very promising. Drivers is a matter of resources, and intel has a lot more to throw at that department then AMD. They seem to have ironed out a lot of the more serious bugs.

The node issue is a bigger hurdle. IDK why they dont use their own tech. Their iGPUs dont pull that much juice, and intel's tech is pretty efficient at lower clock speeds, like the GPUs use. Take the 14900k, clock it down to 5 GHz, and you can cut the TDP to under 125w and it works great.

I'd rather see what intel could manage internally making battlemage. IF they could consistently make interesting chips that would be enough, there's plenty of people who cant afford higher end stuff. They still want to see their team represented on the leader-board though.

 

[human7]

The node issue is a bigger hurdle. IDK why they dont use their own tech.

As their process nodes catch up, they probably will use their own tech. But, it's a bit more complicated than that: Intel has split into two businesses, Product and Foundry Services, so manufacturing and design no longer belong to the same company, though they still share the Intel brand (https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/22/gelsinger_intel_split). iGPUs aside, Intel doesn't have a whole lot of experience with GPU manufacturing, and what experience they do have isn't particularly successful. Their now-dead Xeon Phi was just a manycore CPU system. It makes sense that, since they already have in-house design expertise, that they would outsource the manufacturing to a company that is well versed in making GPUs for other companies.

And the strategy seems to be working. Arc exceeded many expectations. It of course isn't a true third competitor to AMD and Nvidia yet, it's not far off, nor should we expect them to be with their first product generation. I agree with you that they are a bit late to the party, and I really hope Battlemage can compete with Nvidia 5000 GPUs, because those are expected in the next year or so. A true third competitor will help bring those prices down.

 

[Watzupken]

Intel’s first gen dGPU probably exceeded expectations, but also shows the massive amount of work required for them to make their GPUs more performance competitive. Basically ARC got released 1 generation late, and puts them in an unfavourable position, saved by its price. The issue is compounded by the poor software, which will take time to refine.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Hard to compete in the high end when you don't have a reputation... Unless they are BETTER than a 4080, are you really going to pay the same price for an Intel over Nvidia?

Much like AMD has to undercut Nvidia cards to sell - and AMD actually HAS a reputation for making decent GPUs (although not really high-end ones any more).

Hope they succeed though, as watching top-tier GPUs from Nvidia sell for over 1k is ridiculous...

 

[Puiu]

Intel really needs to hit it out of the park on this one, not just in driver quality but outright performance. The A770 wasnt mad but topping out at just mid range doesnt grab headlines. Give us something 4080 level, even if just a limited flagship run, and it will get people interested. And actually roll them out! Any interest I could have had in the A380, for instance, died on the vine because intel took SO long to roll them out that the competition surpassed them.

I really do want them to succeed, since Nvidia is proprietary and AMD doesnt care about lower end users anymore. Their high end is still decent, as is the mid range, but they play the same pricing games as nvidia does.

They are already too late with battlemage. They are launching too close to the next gen GPUs from AMD.

"AMD doesnt care about lower end users anymore" - the next gen AMD GPUs are all about mid to low end since they won't have the high end version (similar to the RX 5000 series). let's wait and see what they are cooking, I'm at least expecting some decent mid range GPUs (value-wise).

 

[Kn0xx]

If Intel BattleMage goes for RTX 4070 level at <450$, its a win for mid-low market... even if drivers aren't up to pace. And will force Nvidia to lower its prices. Its lucricus to pay more than 700$ for a mid tier GPU. Its needs to stop.

 

[CMP01]

Imo Intel are in a period of time rn where they have the best chance they'll ever get to become a real contender in the pack they're currently last place in.

Sure they're still behind AMD but they have some advantages that AMD do not. While we all (should) know and appreciate the comeback that saw AMD take the fight to Intel and get closer to Nvidia than in years, they are not well liked and haven't had the support and sales they should've for all that. I suspect a good part of the reason for AMD backing off next gen is due to that reception and treatment; not enough ppl have seen them as viable and worthy enough to put their money where their mouths are (referring to the reality of a certain very on point meme) when all that R&D must have left quite a bill.

Honestly, all Intel need to do is launch a solid mid range competitor to match up to whatever's next for Nvidia, with an onus on the driver development and support that's been their achilles heel so far, while steering away from Nvidia's steadily more insane pricing. Then build up a tier or two to match when Nvidia hit RTX 6xxx. I say 'all they need to do...' like it's no big deal but it's not like they haven't had the resources and time to come up with something good. Probably won't kill AMD, assuming they retain their console and handheld domination into next gen but we might just end up with only a blue and a green team for PC in the future. I'll be sad to see AMD leave that arena as I think (from experience having a 6800XT and 7900XTX) that they did probably better than anyone could've within their means to come from so far behind so quickly... but they deserved better and so we don't deserve them continuing to be the good option they actually have been this last two gens