Intel plans to release second-generation Arc graphics cards, Battlemage offerings to follow current Alchemist cards, in 2024 with two major GPU flavors, finally led by a high-end enthusiast product, and we'll have an Alchemist update later this year. year. , according to a recently leaked trail sheet.
The Intel Desktop GPU roadmap was provided by YouTuber RedGamingTech (opens in a new tab) (as reported by Tom's Hardware (opens in a new tab)), and shows a pair of Battlemage, BMG-G10 and BMG-G21, which launch in Q2024 XNUMX, or at least scheduled for this quarter (with "early activation," or sampling, to start in QXNUMX).
However, there are some essential points to consider here about the presumed timeline. We must remain in disbelief about the authenticity of this trail sheet, as with any leak, and also take into consideration that the trail sheet, while genuine, is dated to the third quarter of XNUMX, so it dates from a certain time. (and any scheduled data may have changed since then, of course).
The BMG-G10 would be Arc's first enthusiast GPU, so a lot of eyes are going to be on this one, with a power budget of 21W or less, according to the roadmap. This would be a GPU to theoretically accept the more essential offerings from Nvidia and AMD, or at least approach that kind of level, an area in which Intel clearly isn't competing right now. The BMG-G7 sits in the performance tier where current Alchemist AXNUMX graphics cards reside, but with a lower power budget of XNUMXW or less.
Before then though, we're supposedly going to have new Alchemist GPU models at the top of mainframe (read budget), which are supposed to be 1W cards with 2GB of VRAM, coming soon (QXNUMX or QXNUMX). two thousand twenty-three). Now, Intel's plan is supposedly an "Alchemist+" upgrade to its current GPUs, with new budget graphics cards (from XNUMXW to XNUMXW) in QXNUMX XNUMX and a XNUMXW performance model. five W to two hundred twenty-five W in the fourth quarter, as this year comes to a close.
Another leaked slide shows Intel's planned advancements with Battlemage, including better ray tracing performance and "next-generation machine learning-based rendering technology" to spice things up.
Analysis: time matters
The roadmap shows that Intel plans to make improvements with more powerful GPUs for Battlemage that consume less power, as expected. The lower Battlemage GPU, BMG-G21, sits at the higher end of the performance bracket on the roadmap, above the faster Alchemist+ upgrade, but the former's power consumption is expected to be less than a hundred. fifty W vs. one hundred and seventy-five W to two hundred and twenty-five W for the second.
While holding the top-of-the-line BMG-G10 to XNUMX W max might seem like a hurdle for competition with AMD and Nvidia in terms of high-end products, the fact that Intel is promoting it as an enthusiast product shows the claim to make some pretty big jumps in performance per watt. Fingers crossed, anyway (and that's what Intel has already arranged for us to focus on in the future as well).
Naturally, that was just Intel's thinking at the time, so take it all with a whole bunch of spices, and speaking of timing, the release schedule doesn't quite match up to the latest news we've heard from the flea giant. Notably, less than a month ago, Intel graphics manager Raja Koduri told us that Battlemage would be released in 2024 (and, in fact, the next-gen Divino could still appear in XNUMX).
It's a very, very different claim to the 2024 deadline for Battlemage featured here, but as we've already noted, the leaked quest sheet is somewhat out of date, so things might have changed since it was made. That's why we have to be especially wary of this spill, but even if the timelines are out of date, the expected models and power packs can still be profitable, and it's certainly worth taking a look at what Intel might have. his sleeve
If Battlemage really does arrive in XNUMX, as Koduri told us, installing an Alchemist+ update later that year is also going to be really difficult, so if that happens, we'll likely find out pretty soon.
Either way, on the hardware front, we can surely expect some progress on the performance and efficiency fronts, and a notable offering from Battlemage for enthusiasts, and work on the software side is surely going to be just as essential.
Polishing up the Arc graphics supervisor is something Intel has been doing a good job of recently, and with further enhancements and performance boosts with the software, we expect to see more powerful GPUs offering considerably tougher competition to AMD and Nvidia, making more effective forays into breaking this desktop duopoly.
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