Intel Battlemage rumored for December – could new budget GPUs win over gamers neglected by Nvidia and save the Arc brand?

• Leaker claims Intel Battlemage desktop GPUs are arriving in December
• Previous rumors have suggested an early 2025 launch, though
• Intel may want to step up to get ahead of AMD and Nvidia’s CES launches

Intel could spring new budget GPUs on us in the form of the initial 2nd-generation Arc graphics cards, known as Battlemage, as soon as December.

VideoCardz picked up on a fresh rumor about the Battlemage range as aired by regular leaker Golden Pig Upgrade (or GPU – see what they did there?) on Weibo.

We’re told (via a translation) that Battlemage desktop graphics cards are coming next month, and that the leaker’s hope is that they’ll perform “brilliantly” no less. There could be something lost in translation there, perhaps, but very probably this is just a hope rather than a prediction.

It’s a hope we all share, of course, because the low-end of the graphics card market could really use pepping up.

If you’re familiar with the long-standing rumors around Battlemage, you’ll likely recall that the expectation is that Intel will only produce entry-level 2nd-gen Arc GPUs, and nothing above the budget space. Still, if these are killer budget GPUs – fingers crossed – or even just decent ones, they’ll be very welcome.

Analysis: Heading off AMD and Nvidia at the pass?

As ever, this is just a rumor, and it might come to nothing, but this nugget from the grapevine is backed up by other recent speculation. Previous spillage from Weibo has indicated a Battlemage launch before the end of 2024 (complete with a significant generational uplift, we should note), and Intel is already working on 3rd-gen Celestial graphics. Another rumor VideoCardz points out even suggests a November launch.

All that said, there’s been a consistent thread of rumors previously that the next-gen Arc graphics cards may not emerge until early 2025.

It’s possible that Intel could be stepping things up, though, and aiming to launch in December to carve out its own publicity with less headwinds – rather than having to compete with the noise made by AMD and Nvidia, whose next-gen launches are coming at CES 2025 if the rumor mill is right. Why wait until early 2025, if you can get in first, and hype up Battlemage more effectively that way?

That could mean a paper launch, possibly – with not much stock available – but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Even in that scenario, it’ll still be very interesting to see what Intel has planned for Battlemage, because as noted, the budget sector of the GPU market is in dire need of rejuvenation.

Nvidia is not making an effort in the lower-end space at all, and AMD’s purported budget RDNA 3 offerings – the RX 7400 and 7300 – have yet to turn up either (and look very unlikely to at this point).

We could really use more good budget GPU options at the most affordable end of the market – the RX 6600 is looking a bit tired, and over relied upon, at this point – so let’s hope that the most recent mutterings on an earlier launch of Battlemage are on the money.

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