Intel hopes to launch its 2nd Gen Arc Battlemage GPUs “before CES 2025.” Talking to PC World, former NVIDIA engineer (now with Intel) Tom Petersen clarified that the chipmaker is working on its 2nd Generation Arc graphics cards, codenamed Battlemage. Petersen and his colleagues are excited about Battlemage as all their engineers remain busy with their “engineering things.”
It’s coming, I am excited about it, and all our engineers you know how they are constantly doing their engineering things. I’d say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing (Celestial), so think about it as the Battlemage has already has its first silicon in the labs which is very exciting and there’s more good news coming which I can’t talk about right now.
We hope we are going see it before it (next CES ’25).
Tom Petersen on Arc Battlemage, CES 2024 (via PCWorld)
According to Petersen, 30% of Intel’s graphics engineers are working on Battlemage, while the rest have moved on to its successor, Celestial. Most of the hardware-side work for the former has been completed, leaving the vast software side pending. He stated that the first Battlemage samples are being tested in Intel’s labs, and more news on the subject will soon be shared.
Intel’s 2nd Gen Battlemage GPUs (Xe2-HPG) are expected to expand the focus on ray-tracing and upscaling (especially frame generation). Like Alchemist, the Battlemage chips will be fabbed by TSMC (likely on the 4nm/N4 process node). We’re hoping for a Q3/Q4 2024 launch for the next-gen Arc family, roughly the same as the RTX 50 lineup.
