Just before Computex, Intel hinted a more powerful gaming graphics card from the “Battlemage” Arc line may be coming, possibly the B770 model or maybe the B780. The company only presented Arc Pro GPUs for AI applications, still using the smaller die from the Arc B580 card, at the show itself, however. But that doesn’t mean earlier rumors were false. It seems the release of a stronger Battlemage card has been confirmed off record.
As a reminder, it was previously believed that Intel had cancelled the more powerful of the Battlemage GPUs (the BMG-G31) and that nothing other than the BMG-G21 chip (used in the Arc B580 and R570 graphics cards) would be released. However, just before Computex, Intel’s account on the X platform (formerly Twitter) began replying to questions about these more powerful cards with phrases like “stay tuned.” That suggests something may be in the pipeline – though it turns out those interested will need to “stay tuned” for a while, as no direct confirmation came from Intel at Computex.
B770 in the second half of the year
Dutch website Tweakers reports that at the event, their staff spoke with multiple sources who did confirm these cards are still upcoming. Some “sources close to Intel” allegedly directly stated that the Arc B770 (though the exact name is not yet finalized – it might be Arc B780 or both variants) exists. It’s possible that representatives from companies that manufacture Arc graphics cards—such as ASRock, Sparkle (a brand of TUL Corporation, sister to PowerColor), and Chinese manufacturers like Gunnir – were the sources that discussed it.
What’s important, however, is that this GPU is not coming soon – according to Tweakers’ sources, the Arc B770 will only launch in the second half of the year, more precisely in the final quarter (i.e., October to December). This places its debut in the fall and holiday sales season. Plans could still change, of course. But if this is true, Intel must have already completed the tape-out and greenlighted production (which requires paying for expensive masks), offering a good chance the card won’t be cancelled entirely.
Competitive pressure in the 300–400 USD mainstream segment
That gives hope that Intel will keep investing in discrete graphics cards, thereby increasing competitive pressure on Nvidia and AMD. One should not overestimate the effects, as the BMG-G31 chip will reportedly be only about one-third to one-half more powerful than the BMG-G21 used in the Arc B580 GPU. That card is slightly faster than the GeForce RTX 4060 or Radeon RX 7600 XT (especially at 1440p resolution). With up to 50% higher performance, the Arc B770 with the BMG-G31 chip could compete with the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (429 USD) and Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB (349 USD). We’ll see if it offers a better price against these rivals.
- Read more: GeForce RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti are here: Specs, prices, availability
- Read more: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT revealed: Specs, prices, release date [update]
This BMG-G31 GPU is expected to feature 32 Xe Core compute units (4096 shaders, 32 RTUs, 256 XMX units for AI) of the Xe2 “Battlemage” architecture and a 256-bit memory interface.
It will apparently still use GDDR6 memory, which will deliver 640 GB/s of bandwidth provided the effective clock speed is 20.0 GHz. Memory capacity will almost certainly be 16 GB, which can differentiate the card from cheaper 8GB competitors. However, Intel is also likely to release Arc Pro variants with 32 GB of memory.
Source: Tweakers, VideoCardz
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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