- Leak suggests the box for Arc B580 is being readied
- This comes on top of rumors that Intel will launch Battlemage next month
- We can hope for a true budget 1080p champ in those 2nd-gen Arc GPUs
Rumors around Intel’s next-gen Battlemage desktop GPUs are ramping up, with the latest being a sighting of the Arc B580 graphics card – or at least a hint that the packaging is being readied.
Tom’s Hardware noticed the appearance of a shipping manifest, presented in a post on X, seemingly for the box of the Battlemage (BMG) B580 GPU.
First Battlemage B580? pic.twitter.com/uz0aaJlPtANovember 18, 2024
Naturally, take this with some seasoning – plus the leaker in question is not one we’ve heard of before – but the packaging for the next-gen Arc graphics cards being readied (since September, apparently) falls in line with recent spinning from the rumor mill.
That includes speculation from a couple of days ago that showed a leaked teaser, showing Intel has a Battlemage announcement for December, which follows a rumor from earlier this month suggesting the exact same thing.
So, at least in theory, the revelation of these new 2nd-gen Arc GPUs is almost upon us.
Analysis: Battling at the lower-end of the GPU market
An imminent reveal makes sense in terms of Intel wanting to get in ahead with its Battlemage GPU launch, given that both AMD and Nvidia are at this point strongly rumored to be about to reveal their respective next-gen ranges of graphics cards – RDNA 4 and Blackwell – at CES 2025.
Previous rumors had suggested an early 2025 launch for Battlemage, but perhaps Intel fears its 2nd-gen Arc graphics cards might get lost in the hype battle between RDNA 4 and RTX 5000 GPUs if it waits that long – drowned out by the noise made around those rival GPUs, even if they aren’t direct rivals for Intel – so Team Blue has stepped up its plans.
Remember, we might just get a Battlemage announcement in December, and the boards themselves may not go on sale until later (in fact, that’s likely to be the case).
Seeing the Arc B580 mentioned specifically is interesting, as the gist of what we’ve heard regarding the performance of Battlemage GPUs is that they’ll all be targeting the lower end of the market.
Rumor has it that the top 2nd-gen Arc graphics card will run with 32 Xe cores, so will equal the current-gen (Alchemist) Arc A770 – so that’d fit with a theoretical B580 model. (Intel would have to drop this configuration down a tier to make sense, in other words – remember, though, there’ll be architectural performance improvements here, too, it’s not all about core count). So, perhaps the B580 will be the top offering with Battlemage, but this is all guesswork, really.
Whatever the case, it’ll be great to get some new budget GPUs – with truly affordable price tags – as this is an area Nvidia especially, and AMD too, has neglected for too long. Therefore, it’s a space where Intel can hopefully get in and make a meaningful difference in the world of desktop GPUs. Fingers and toes crossed.
