Intel has been in a bit of a dubious position for some time. With instabilities in its 13th and 14th-generation chips and its latest chips, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, underperforming in games, Intel needs a bit of a win. It could just get that win next month if its new set of Battlemage GPUs is up to the task.
As reported by Hot Hardware, reputable hardware leaker Golden Pig said the new line of GPUs will arrive next month. In their post on Weibo, a Chinese social media website, they said they are looking forward to the "wonderful performance" of Battlemage. Though these are reported to arrive ahead of Nvidia's RTX 5070 and RTX 5080 line, it's important to note that Battlemage isn't aiming to compete with them.
Instead, Intel is aiming to match the rough performance of the Nvidia RTX 4070, and won't try to match anything as high as the RTX 4080 line. For this reason, if you've been holding on, waiting for something better than Nvidia's 40-series lineup of cards, you won't be getting it next month. However, if you want to move up from an older generation of graphics cards, Intel may be able to tempt you.
It is worth noting, however, that there might be a note of sarcasm lost in translation of the Weibo post. The expectation has long been that Intel would be launching Battlemage in 2024 and with only one month left of the year it may be that Golden Pig is referencing rather than any specific knowledge of a release plan. And also because the "exciting" or "wonderful performance" (depending on your machine translation) isn't necessarily what is being expected of Intel's next-gen GPUs, either.
We tested the previous Arc cards and found them to be unoptimized with a heavy power draw. They made good competition in some ways but lacked that punch of power needed to really stand out. We have now seen the Battlemage GPUs inside of the latest Lunar Lake processors, and that does give us some hope things have changed. The iGPU is certainly more consistent in its gaming performance across a range of games in a way the initial Arc GPUs failed to do. But, as ever, the price/performance balance will be key to any success Intel sees with Battlemage.
Intel's iGPU performing better ties to a comment made just this week by Intel CEO. In the latest quarterly, Pat Gelsinger said he sees "less need for discrete graphics", which might imply Intel is moving away from dedicated GPUs like the Arc line altogether.
Nothing is confirmed right now so everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt but GoldenPig has been right before and Intel really needs something to go right for it in the gaming space. We might know by this time next month if Battlemage is how Intel pulls back some of that goodwill.
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