At least that's what leaker Jaykihn announced on X (formerly Twitter), who is generally quite well informed about Intel's projects. This "Big Battlemage" GPU had been the talk of the town for a while. It was supposed to ship up to 24GB of GDDR6 memory, a 256-bit memory interface, and 32 Xe cores.
No beefy card from Intel this year
On paper, a card capable of teasing the high-end models from AMD and Nvidia. Except that in reality, the project would have been quietly abandoned as early as the third quarter of 2024. In other words, Intel had already turned the page well before the B580 hits the market.
It's a shame, because this B580, without being a powerhouse, has managed to make a place for itself thanks to its good price-quality ratio. Coupled with a fast processor, it offers very decent performance, all with controlled consumption. Many hoped that Intel would go further with a model tailored for demanding gamers. Failure.
The timing is not ideal. The market GPUs are still struggling: prices are inflated, stocks are low, and even the smallest high-performance graphics card is selling like hot cakes. AMD did launch its Radeon RX 9070 XT at $599, but good luck finding it at that price. Retailers often offer it well above that, when it's available.
Nvidia, for its part, remains the only company to truly offer very high-end GPUs with its RTX 5000 series. And as usual, the Founders Editions are selling out in the blink of an eye. In short, there's room for a third player... but not this year.
So, what's in store for us at Intel? The next generation, dubbed "Celestial," could mark a turning point. These future cards, based on the Xe3P architecture, promise new features, and perhaps even performance worthy of the very high-end. But for now, it's completely unclear. No date, no official specs.
We only know that Xe3 will appear in Panther Lake processors (mobile chips), expected by the end of the year. For desktop cards, we'll have to wait a little longer. And keep your fingers crossed that Intel finally dares to release a model that isn't afraid of the RTX 5090 and its ilk.
In the meantime, gamers looking for a powerful card at a decent price will have to continue to juggle stock shortages, excessive prices, and minor disappointments.
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