Intel's Arc Battlemage "Xe2" discrete GPUs are set to deliver big performance gains, as the firm chooses TSMC's 4nm node for its lineup.
Intel's Battlemage "Xe2" Discrete Arc GPUs Will Be a Big Step Up Over The Firm's Alchemist Series, Expected To Utilize TSMC 4nm Process Node
Well, it looks like Team Blue isn't playing around with its upcoming GPU series. The company looks to make huge strides in the markets, competing head-to-head with NVIDIA and AMD. Not only is Intel's next-gen Xe2 GPU series expected to feature a 50% performance increase over Alchemist, but the company looks to max out on everything.
A new report by DigiTimes has disclosed that Intel will employ TSMC's 4nm process node for its Arc Battlemage "Xe2" discrete GPUs, which is a huge jump from the Alchemist lineup, which was built upon the 6nm process (from TSMC).
Well, Intel's Xe2 architecture for Arc Battlemage discrete GPUs comes with lots of improvements over the existing Alchemist Xe1 GPUs, along with various improvements and feature additions. We have extensive coverage revealing Battlemage's potential capabilities, but to sum it all up, not only would the lineup be Intel's highest-end discrete GPU offering, but the firm achieved a breakthrough with it in the GPU industry. Here are some of the rumored features for Battlemage "Xe2" gaming GPUs:
- Up To 50% Performance Increase Versus Alchemist
- Next-Gen Memory Subsystem & Compression
- Improved Ray Tracing
- Micro-Architecture improvements
- Next-gen ML-based rendering tech
- Latest DeepLink capabilities
- Targeting Performance/Enthusiast Gaming
Well, with the utilization of TSMC's N4 process, the Intel Arc Battlemage "Xe2" discrete GPU lineup will indeed prove to be disruptive. The Taiwan giant says that the 4nm node provides an 11% performance improvement over the N5 (4nm); hence, the improvement will be much higher than the 6nm. Apart from that, the process is known to be much more power efficient, contributing to Battlemage's power consumption figures. So far, we have seen reports of at least two Battlemage GPUs, the BMG-21 and BMG-31, which are rumored to debut by Holiday 2024.
It is expected that Battlemage will be on par with the current GPU offerings from AMD and NVIDIA, and given that Intel manages to back the platform with proper software support and a decent value, more consumers will be inclined to switch towards Intel's newest GPUs, but that remains inconclusive for now.
With next-gen GPU releases such as AMD's "RX 8000" series and NVIDIA's "RTX 50" series, the competition in the markets is certainly going to heat up. We could see a glimpse of it at Intel's Innovation 2024, which will be held in September this year.
Intel Arc Battlemage Graphics Card "Rumored" Specs:
| Graphics Card Variant | Arc B*** | Arc B*** | Arc A770 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Die | Arc BMG-G31 | Arc BMG-G21 | Arc ACM-G10 |
| Process Node | TSMC 5nm? | TSMC 5nm? | TSMC 6nm |
| Die Size | TBD | TBD | 406mm2 |
| Shading Units (Cores) | 4096 (32 Xe2-Cores) | 2048 (16 Xe2-Cores) | 4096 (32 Xe-Cores) |
| GPU Clock (Graphics) | TBD | TBD | 2.10 GHz |
| Memory Capacity | 16 GB GDDR6(x)? | 12 GB GDDR6(x)? | 16 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Speed | TBD | TBD | 17.5 Gbps |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 192-bit | 256-bit |
| Bandwidth | TBD | TBD | 560 GB/s |
| TGP | TBD | TBD | 225W |
| Price (at launch) | TBD | TBD | $349 |
