New leak reveals possible launch for Intel's Arc Battlemage GPUs by 2024, but performance could be significantly nerfed

A new report from Moore’s Law Is Dead posits that Intel’s recently reestablished discrete GPU division still faces major hurdles and its future remains very uncertain. MLID previously claimed that Battlemage might be entirely scrapped while the GPU division could end up sacked together with other businesses that are not turning a profit. It now seems that these rumors have been mostly exaggerated, even though Intel has already stopped selling the reference Alchemist A770 boards, and Raja Koduri is not with Intel anymore.

The Battlemage generation that was planned to release in 2023 is still affected by serious issues and the actual launch could be pushed to late 1H 2024 or sometime in 2H 2024. Since Nvidia is rumored to launch the next gen gaming GPUs in 2025, a 2024 release window for the Battlemage GPUs may prove problematic as far as profits go.

MLID states that the Battlemage GPUs should feature a PCIe 5.0 interface, and the VRAM specs are still not finalized. The original specs featured GDDR6, but, in the meantime, Intel shifted to GDDR6X and if the GPUs end up launching in 2H 2024, we could even see GDDR7 VRAM.

Apparently, Battlemage was supposed to have many die configurations, but the number has been reduced to only 3. The top-of-the-line solution is represented by G10, a 362 mm² die with 448 EUs, 256-bit memory bus and 16 GB GDDR6X VRAM. There is also a smaller 253 mm² G21 die with 320 EU, 192-bit memory bus and 12 GB VRAM, plus a cut-down G21 version with only 256 EUs, 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM.

G10 was initially designed to compete with and beat Nvidia’s RTX 4080, but it already went through multiple nerfs so it might end up slower than the RTX 4070, or, even worse, it could be canceled.

Intel is certainly in a difficult spot right now, as its Arc Alchemist cards are not selling well at all, despite substantial discounts. MLID believes Intel should launch a new GPU brand and start afresh, but not before it sorts out production problems, which might take at least 2 more years.

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