It’s odd that we get tech news without a slew of constant rumours and leaks beforehand. In fact, it’s generally stranger to not hear about a big new release months ahead of any official announcement than it is for secrets to remain, well, secret. That’s why it’s strange that we’re only now getting some information on the next bunch of Intel GPUs, which they’re calling Battlemage.
Ignoring the unreasonably cool name, at least it’s cool if you play D&D, Dragon’s Dogma 2, or basically any high-fantasy game in existence, the Battlemage GPU series is going to be the next gen of Intel GPUs. The main issue that Intel has been facing on the GPU front is that, quite simply, it’s competing with current-gen AMD and Nvidia GPUs, which have a lot more provenance.
Though present-generation Alchemist Arc has improved from numerous driver updates, and despite having something of a chokehold on the processor side of things, Intel wants more. While we’re still very much waiting for official news from Intel on Battlemage GPUs, maybe they’re still in training or grinding out levels; we do now have some reliable leaks thanks to SiSoftware.
Rather interestingly, it doesn’t seem as though the Battlemage GPUs are any faster than the Alchemist equivalents, which is certainly a choice. It’s likely that it’s more about optimisation and specific circumstances, but it’s basically impossible to tell that without the army of usual online testers that appear (and we love them) to sort all of these things out in a wide range of different tests.
We’d imagine all of this secrecy is to make sure that Intel can keep trying to compete with AMD and Nvidia. It’s likely Team Blue will move away from raw power and embrace being a bit more affordable along with having good memory too, which is what keeps them selling at the moment. If you’re a big stats person, then you should go and have a look at the breakdowns currently available on SiSoftware, but for everyone else, just keep in mind that the Battlemage GPUs are coming; they just need new robes and a good shoeshine before properly taking the stage. We’ll stop making jokes about fantasy mages when companies stop naming GPUs after them, but thankfully, we’ve got a few more months of this to keep us fed.
