Next-gen Intel “Battlemage” GPU leak hints at performance boost

New leaks have surfaced regarding the rumored Intel Battlemage GPU architecture, and there are signs that you could expect a performance boost when compared to Alchemist.

The Intel Arc graphics cards have not made the impact that some thought they might. So far they have failed to match the performance or sales figures of rival AMD and Nvidia. However, the latest leaks suggest the fight is not over yet, as the next generation of Intel GPUs might see a big performance improvement.

The current generation of Intel Arc discrete graphics cards has largely failed to impress, though the ‘Alchemist’ line of GPUs has attracted some buyers thanks to its low price and large VRAM capacity, which is useful for certain functions such as video editing and 3D rendering.

The successor to Alchemist has been codenamed Battlemage, and according to leaks on the SiSoftware Sandra webpage reported via VideoCardz, it will boast some upgrades compared to its predecessor.

Intel

According to the data on the SiSoftware Sandra website, Intel is working on two Xe2 chips for the Battlemage GPU. One with 20 Xe-Cores, and another with 24 Xe-Cores. Both are listed as having 12GB of VRAM (listed as 11.6GB on the data leak). Though neither of the two chips appears to be faster than the Alchemist chips on paper, several factors that could potentially make a huge difference in performance.

Firstly, the latest rumors regarding the Intel Arc Battlemage suggest that it will use a doubled core count per Xe-Core. Secondly, it is alleged to use a new cutting-edge memory subsystem, which could be GDDR7 support. Thirdly, Intel has yet to fully optimize these chips. With all of this in mind, users can likely expect a significant performance uplift from the new chips.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll be getting an Intel GPU that’s faster than an RTX 4090, more competition in the GPU market is no bad thing.