An alleged Intel Arc Desktop Graphics roadmap has been leaked out which points out to Alchemist+ in 2H 2023 & Battlemage GPUs in 2024.
Leaked Intel Desktop Graphics Roadmap Points Out To Alchemist Refresh In 2H 2023, Battlemage GPUs in 2024
Raja Koduri has said on several occasions that they aren't giving up on their discrete GPUs or the desktop graphics card lineup. Now our friends at RedGamingTech seem to have discovered a very legitimate-looking roadmap that discusses Intel's future desktop graphics for 2023 and 2024. The roadmap looks pretty recent since it covers all the existing Alchemist SKUs including a few that are yet to be released.
Intel Arc Alchemist+: 2nd Gen Arc-A Desktop Discrete Graphics For 2H 2023
It looks like the recent rumors about a refresh for the Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs might be true. The roadmap leak shows the new lineup to be referred to as the 'Alchemist+' family and is expected to include two GPU SKUs, the ACM+ G21 and the ACM+ G20. The ACM+ G21 will be targetted at high-end graphics cards with a TDP rating of 175-225W while the ACM+ G20 series will target entry-level designs with 75-100W discrete graphics products.
What's interesting is that the successor to the ACM-G10, the high-end Alchemist GPU, will be the ACM-G21 while the successor to the ACM G11, the low-end Alchemist GPU, will be the ACM-G20. This could more or less be related to the production of the chip meaning that the entry-level GPU was designed earlier than the G21 GPU.
Intel also plans on releasing two mid-tier SKUs within the existing Arc Alchemist graphics card line aiming the 150W segment. Both GPUs are said to feature 6 GB memory and will be designated at the performance and mainstream segments. Do note that Intel has yet to launch its Arc A580 GPU for desktop PCs.
Intel Arc Battlemage: Arc-B Series Desktop Discrete Graphics For 1H 2024
Next year, Intel plans to go big with the launch of two powerful GPUs aiming at the enthusiast dGPU segment. These two GPUs will be part of the Battlemage family and utilize the Xe2 dGPU architecture. The roadmap states that early enablement of the Battlemage GPUs is planned for Q1'24 while the first GPUs should appear in the mid of 2024.
The Arc B-Series 'Battlemage' lineup will include the enthusiast-tier BMG-G10 GPU which will ship with a TDP of <225W while the BMG-G21 GPU will target the performance segment with <150 Watt TDP designs. As for the feature sets, RedGamingTech has a second slide that shows the following technologies within Battlemage Xe2-HPG Discrete graphics:
- Next-Gen Memory Subsystem & Compression
- Improved Ray Tracing
- Micro-Architecture improvements
- Next-Gen ML-based rendering tech
- Latest DeepLink capabilities
- Targeting Performance/Enthusiast Gaming
We have heard from Intel that the next-gen Battlemage GPUs are substantially better than where Alchemist was in its current stage and that work on Celestial has also started.
The bulk of the silicon team is working on Battlemage and platform engineering and some amount of the software resources have also been [...]
Raja Koduri, Head of Intel AXG & Executive VP
Most of our ASIC team is on Battlemage. A small portion of it is on our future, which is Celestial. And then there's a very small portion on Alchemist today, but they're kind of different function sets. So like a board and, what I'll call, chip teams are on Alchemist right now. Kind of think of it as getting our board just right, getting our BIOS just right, making all the final tuning. But the bulk of our design team is on Battlemage.
Our plan is to start here. And then we add on top and then we add on top. And it's not a really hard strategy to understand because we're starting with the volume segment of the market, and then we'll grow into more high-performance segments over time.
It will be some time before we get to hear more from Intel since they recently held their CES 2023 keynote and gave us no further update on the Arc GPU family or any new discrete graphics cards but there are plenty of events during the first half of 2023 where the company might just give us the next-big update on its Arc GPU family.
Intel ARC Gaming GPU Lineup
| GPU Family | Intel Xe-HPG | Intel Xe-HPG | Intel Xe2-HPG | Intel Xe3-HPG | Intel Xe Next | Intel Xe Next Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Products | ARC Alchemist GPUs | ARC Alchemist+ GPUs | ARC Battlemage GPUs | ARC Celestial GPUs | ARC Druid GPUs | ARC E*** GPUs |
| GPU Segment | Mainstream Gaming (Discrete) | Mainstream Gaming (Discrete) | Mainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete) | Mainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete) | Mainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete) | Mainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete) |
| GPU Gen | Gen 12 | Gen 12 | Gen 13? | Gen 14? | Gen 15? | Gen 16? |
| CPU iGPU | Xe-LPG (Meteor Lake) | Xe-LPG+ (Arrow Lake) | Xe2-LPG (Lunar Lake) | Xe3-LPG (Panther Lake) | TBA | TBA |
| Process Node | TSMC 6nm | TSMC 6nm | TSMC 4nm? | TSMC 3nm? | TBA | TBA |
| Specs / Design | 512 EUs / 1 Tile / 1 GPU | 512 EUs / 1 Tile / 1 GPU | 1024 EUs / 1 Tile / 1 GPU | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Memory Subsystem | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6(X)? | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Launch | 2022 | 2024 | 2024 | 2025? | 2026? | 2026+ |
