With the original timeline for Intel Arc graphics well out the window at this point, it’s difficult to tell when the likes of Celestial or Druid will arrive, if ever. However, in a promising sign of life, it seems the company’s next GPU architecture is already undergoing testing as part of the next batch of Core Ultra mobile processors.
X user GawroskiT spotted a SiSoftware benchmark for what appears to be an Intel Panther Lake CPU, complete with Xe3 integrated graphics. More specifically, this chip contains 32CUs, hinting at the likelihood of four Xe3 cores per unit.
This benchmark could serve as an indication that Intel plans to launch dedicated Xe3 graphics after integrated solutions. The company recently adopted this strategy with its Lunar Lake processors, housing Xe2 graphics while desktop Battlemage graphics cards are yet to arrive. With this in mind, discrete Celestial graphics should naturally pack far more Xe3 cores.
It’s far too early to suggest where Xe3 will fall in the pecking order of graphics architectures. However, Intel has its work cut out for itself as both AMD and Nvidia busy themselves with future architectures. If rumours surrounding UDNA and a potential GeForce APU are anything to go by, competition between the three giants will only continue to grow fiercer.
For now, it appears as though Arc B580 will be our next taste of Intel’s graphical prowess. The success of Xe2 will likely have knock-on effects for Xe3, just as Xe-LPG and Xe-HPG did before it. I hope that Intel recognises the challenge ahead of it and prices both appropriately and aggressively for what it has to offer. If it doesn’t, Celestial could be the last architecture we see from Intel leaving Druid (Xe4) a distant dream.
With B-Series graphics cards likely due to launch in the coming months, it won’t be long before we can all measure the quality of Intel’s engineering and strategy.
