Intel Battlemage leak gives us hope that maybe there’ll be a more powerful 2nd-gen Arc GPU after all
And with any luck, Battlemage graphics cards might still turn up this year – or at least early in 2025
Intel’s Battlemage graphics cards have been something of a worry of late, what with the lack of leaks around these next-gen GPUs, but we’ve just been treated to another piece of spillage on the 2nd-gen products (following hot on the heels of a leak a few days ago).
This comes from @momomo_us on X (formerly Twitter) who has been busy sharing a bunch of hardware shipment manifests, one of which pertains to Battlemage, the follow-up to Intel’s ever-improving Alchemist GPUs.
pic.twitter.com/RPQcqnU7fuMarch 28, 2024
It shows a pair of desktop Battlemage (Xe2-HPG) graphics cards, one of which has the codename BMG-G10 and the other is BMG-G21.
If you have a good memory, the G10 label might ring a bell, mainly because there were a few rumors swirling around concerning this GPU back in 2023, and that it would be the ‘enthusiast’ level offering for Battlemage sporting a peppy level of performance.
Indeed, it was spotted in testing in August 2023, but then as 2024 started, so came the suggestion that Battlemage G10 had been canceled.
Yet here it is, showing up in said manifest, which might stoke some excitement among gamers looking for Intel to provide a more powerful offering with its Battlemage range – one that could make a mark on our list of the best graphics cards with any luck.
Analysis: Let’s be cautious – but this is a hopeful sign
We’d be very careful about getting excited here, though. Mainly because all the recent chatter from the grapevine is about how Intel is narrowing down the focus of Battlemage to lower-end graphics cards, or mid-to-lower tier products.
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Still, you never know what might be in the cards, and it’s intriguing to get a glimpse of G10 again – although we don’t know for sure what GPU is behind the codename, of course.
On a broader level, it’s just good to see some activity and leaks with Battlemage, coming on top of the recent spillage we mentioned at the outset. That leak from earlier this week showed a couple of lower-end GPUs, which falls more in line with expectations from the rumor mill of late.
What we take from this more than anything is the hope that Battlemage could still arrive before 2024 is out, perhaps. And this possibility has still been raised in recent rumors elsewhere, even if there are definite concerns that Intel’s 2nd-gen Arc products won’t turn up until 2025, and maybe not that early next year, either.
Via Wccftech
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).