Fresh leak is the first we’ve heard about Intel Battlemage in some time – complete with a suggestion that 2nd-gen GPUs will be worryingly late

We haven’t heard much about Intel’s Battlemage GPUs recently, except for rumblings on the grapevine that all is not well with the 2nd-generation of Arc graphics cards – but a fresh leak has given us a glimpse of a potential couple of incoming boards.

Wccftech noticed that Miktdt on X (formerly Twitter) discovered what could be two Battlemage desktop GPUs, although we can’t be certain that’s what they are. As ever with any leak, we should be cautious about the possibility of fabrication here.

There are a pair of Xe2 GPUs with 20 Xe Cores and 24 Xe Cores in the SiSoftware Sandra database, which could be mid-to-lower-end Battlemage products. For reference in the current generation, the A580, in the middle of the Alchemist pack, has 24 Xe Cores.

We also see that these graphics cards have low clock speeds of 1.8GHz, which is likely due to them being early sample versions, and they are equipped with 12GB of video RAM.

The finished products will have faster clocks, naturally, and the benchmark results presented here don’t really mean much given the current pre-release state of the GPUs.

There’s also 8MB of L2 cache and as Wccftech points out, this is half the configuration of the flagship Alchemist GPU with 32 Xe Cores (the Arc A770).

Analysis: Battlemage sliding well into 2025?

We can’t be certain these are Battlemage GPUs, as noted, but this seems the most likely bet. And it’s about time that we should be seeing firmer leaks around the next-gen graphics cards from Intel, frankly, as things have been pretty quiet of late.

We did get a brief teaser at CES 2024 a few months back, mind you, where Intel confirmed Battlemage silicon is in testing in the labs, and indicated that it’s hopeful for the next-gen GPUs to be wheeled out at CES 2025.

While Battlemage certainly is in the labs, YouTube leaker Moore’s Law is Dead was recently told that the last time there were updates on Battlemage test boards was April 2023, nearly a year ago now. The word from the grapevine overall is consistent in suggesting that Intel is making slow progress with its 2nd-gen GPUs, which is backed up by the mentioned lack of leaks in recent times.

Still, at least we have this current piece of spillage to be going on with, which adds a bit of positivity in terms of a sign that Battlemage is indeed taking some steps forward in its release schedule.

The leaker on X, Miktdt, adds that they expect a release date of anything between Q4 of this year and Q2 2025 at the latest. Moore’s Law is Dead also previously said we’ll now be very lucky to see Battlemage GPUs before this year is out, and early 2025 is looking more likely.

In short, while 2024 could still happen – just about – early next year seems the safer bet, particularly as Intel indicated CES 2025 for what would presumably simply be a reveal of the GPUs.

Regarding the cards themselves, we’ll likely see a slightly beefier Battlemage GPU than the ones aired here. The flagship could run with 40 Xe Cores if another rumor is right, or the range could top out at 32 Xe Cores, just like Alchemist does already (but with the benefit of 2nd-gen architectural gains, of course).

However powerful these next-gen GPUs turn out to be – and some previous rumors have indicated Intel may only make low-end boards – given the right pricing, they could still shake up the GPU market. And in fairness, the budget end of the graphics card spectrum is where we really need some fresh blood to pep up value propositions.

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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).