The company is advanced in the Battlemage development cycle, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of the hardware team has already moved on to the next project.
We have not heard anything new about Intel’s discrete graphics processing units (GPUs) in quite some time. Arc Alchemist was released by the firm during the year 2022, with the high-end A770 and A750 cards arriving towards the close of that year; however, we have not received any further information since then. There has been no news from Intel regarding their next-generation Battlemage architecture, despite the fact that the company appears to have spent the entirety of 2023 merely improving its drivers, which were desperately needed. Intel is finally talking about it now that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing. One of Intel’s executives has stated on record that it should come before the next CES, which is scheduled to take place in 2025.
Tom Peterson, who was once employed by Nvidia, has assumed the role of the de facto spokesperson for the discrete graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by Intel. During the event, he sat down with PCWorld to discuss the company’s future intentions for GPUs. In the interview, he claimed that it is a sequel to Alchemist, which is now being tested in the laboratories under the codename Battlemage. He also mentioned that it is a follow-up to Alchemist. According to him, the majority of the hardware team that was responsible for creating the silicon has already moved on to the next thing. This is because it appears that the silicon has been completed in its entirety. TechSpot reports that he does not reveal the nature of that in the video; nevertheless, the roadmap of the corporation indicates that the subsequent version will be referred to as Celestial, and it is speculated that it will be released in the year 2026.
As far as Peterson is concerned, thirty percent of the total team that is responsible for the development of Intel graphics technology is currently working on drivers for Battlemage, while the remaining members have already moved on to the next project. It seems to us that Intel has learnt an important lesson with its initial introduction of Arc Alchemist, which is to ensure that the drivers are optimised for DX11 and DX9 gaming. This is as a result of the fact that Alchemist released with little support for older games, which required the business to rapidly polish them for the following year. The business made significant progress with its drivers after the launch, but we think that the majority of gamers had already made up their minds about whether or not to purchase one by that point.
On the whole, the timetable that Peterson has outlined is consistent with earlier reports and roadmaps that have been leaked. Since Alchemist was released in the latter half of 2022, we may anticipate Battlemage to be released later this year. Intel is rumoured to be employing a two-year cadence for its graphics processing units (GPUs), which is comparable to AMD and Nvidia. While Arc Alchemist was manufactured using TSMC’s 6nm process, Battlemage is anticipated to be manufactured using a more recent 4nm process. However, if both AMD and Nvidia decide to use TSMC’s new 3nm node for RDNA 4 and Blackwell, Intel will find itself once again in a position where it is completely behind the curve. Despite this, there is continued optimism, and there is a great deal of anticipation for Intel’s second attempt at the GPU market.