Intel may be shipping Battlemage GPUs, but it’s not what it seems

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Intel Arc A580 graphics card on a pink background.

Intel’s upcoming Battlemage graphics cards might be a lot closer than they seemed to be. A GPU dubbed “BMG B580” appeared in a recent shipping manifest — but it’s not quite what it might seem. On the upside, this isn’t the only sign that Intel’s best graphics cards are on the immediate horizon.

The shipping manifest, first spotted by josefk972 on X (Twitter), actually dates back to September 18, but it went unseen up until now. The manifest refers to the BMG B580 — which, in all likelihood, will be the successor to Intel’s budget Arc A580. However, it’s not the GPU itself that’s being shipped; Intel is only shipping the retail boxes for the B580.

First Battlemage B580? pic.twitter.com/uz0aaJlPtA

— X86 is dead&back (@josefk972) November 18, 2024

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As this is just a box, it’s hard to figure out anything about the actual graphics card based on this leak. The retail box measures 192mm x 89mm x 381mm, which isn’t huge, but I fully expect the B580 to be a compact, budget-friendly GPU. It’s most likely a dual-slot card with two fans.

The specs are still a mystery, although rumor has it that Intel axed the most high-end Battlemage model it had in the works. As such, we’re probably looking at anywhere from 20 to 32 Xe cores for this one. We’ve recently spotted an unnamed Intel GPU in a benchmark, and that model served up 20 Xe cores, 12GB of VRAM, and a boost clock of up to 2,850MHz. In all likelihood, the B580 won’t feature 12GB of VRAM and such a solid frequency, but we’ll have to see.

Intel Arc Battlemage announcement poster.

It’s been a quiet year for Battlemage, but the number of leaks is truly starting to ramp up. Just yesterday, Japanese website Gazlog reported that Intel is planning a Battlemage SoC event for next month. This — admittedly vague — prediction isn’t the first one of its kind. We’ve already heard whispers of a possible launch for Battlemage in time for Black Friday sales. That’s unlikely now, but December is still very much in the cards.

If Intel manages to get Battlemage out the door this year, it’ll beat both Nvidia’s RTX 50-series and AMD’s RDNA 4 to the punch. Both of those lineups are likely to be revealed during CES 2025 in January.

Monica J. White

Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…

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Intel Arc A770 GPU installed in a test bench.

The GPU market is about to start heating up in just a few short months, and that's not just due to AMD and Nvidia. According to a new report, Intel plans to release its highly anticipated, next-gen Arc Battlemage graphics cards sooner than many have expected, and the GPUs might drop at just the perfect time to steal some sales away from AMD and Nvidia.

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Intel Arc A580 graphics card on a pink background.

Intel faced an uphill climb with Arc Alchemist, and it looks like it might have another fight ahead with its next-gen Battlemage GPUs. The competition is always fierce, and AMD and Nvidia have big plans for the year ahead.

Despite the clouds that loom on the horizon, Intel might still surprise us with Battlemage -- in a good way. Here's where Intel Arc Battlemage is currently at, and why it might have a shot at being one of the best GPUs of the year.
Déjà vu
Prior to the release of Intel Arc Alchemist, one of the main complaints was that the general public was kept in the dark a lot of the time. The release date was pushed back more than once, and the information about the GPUs was fairly scarce compared to the constant hype we've all grown used to with Nvidia and AMD leaks.

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