Intel Readies Big Battlemage Onslaught With New GPUs Spotted In Runtime Code

Like the rest of the review circuit, we're fairly well enamored with Intel's Arc B-series GPUs. The Arc B570 offers killer entry-level value, and the Arc B580 offers solid 1440p performance without charging you extra for 'sufficient' video RAM. We'd really like to see Intel drop a bigger Battlemage GPU, and while that part has been rumored for a long time, it has not materialized.

A normally-reliable Intel leaker, Jaykihn, stated back in March that the BMG-G31 GPU was canceled in Q3 of 2024. However, the chip has continued to appear in leaks, including shipping manifests, and now, Intel's own Compute Runtime. Indeed, commit ff38005 to the Github, by JablonskiMateusz, is explicitly labeled "feature: add support for release 20.2 (BMG G31)".


It doesn't get a lot more explicit than that. If BMG-G31 was canceled, why would Intel be adding support to its public compute runtime for it now? Clearly, Intel's "Big Battlemage" GPU is alive and well, and likely on the way before long. While we haven't heard a peep from Intel on the topic, this specific event is more than enough information to say that a product of some kind is definitely forthcoming.

The only questions then become "which," "when," and "for how much?" The first question is essentially simple to address; it's either going to be a gaming-focused Arc GPU, a productivity-prioritized Arc Pro GPU, or perhaps both. There are no less than four different device IDs for BMG-G31 GPUs, so it's likely that we'll see a full-fat version and a cut-down version for both gaming and pro markets.


As far as the latter two questions, only Intel can answer those. It's interesting to see the company launching a new Xe2 GPU at this stage when Panther Lake is set to debut the Xe3 graphics IP not long after. Xe2, as an architecture, is competitive with NVIDIA's last-gen parts and AMD's current-gen hardware in terms of both feature set and performance; if priced right, a lot of people would likely be lining up to purchase a hypothetical "Arc B770". As ever, the devil is in the details.

_{Thanks to Phoronix for the spot.}