Intel Is Still Committed to Releasing Arc Celestial and Arc Druid Graphics Cards Following Battlemage, According to Latest Rumor

Image: Intel

A new rumor suggests that Intel is still committed to the discreet GPU market beyond its upcoming Battlemage series. Intel has experienced many challenges in recent years, resulting in many company changes that include layoffs and spurring rumors of buyouts. Among those challenges was the launch of its first generation of discreet graphics cards that in some ways resembled a soft launch as some retailers chose not to stock them out of concerns of lack of consumer interest. Intel would continue to show commitment for its Arc Alchemist series through performance-improving driver updates, XeSS features, and price cuts. Despite these initiatives, doubt regarding its dGPU division’s future has been maintained due to uncertainty about the chip manufacturer’s overall path forward but according to a new leak, things may not be as bad as they seem.

Battlemage

Some more immediate good news for Arc graphics is that Intel is expected to officially announce its Battlemage series next week with a launch date of December 12 for reference models and December 13 for AIB custom variants. There are presently only two known models, the B570 and B580, with the latter looking like a competitor to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600, but with twice the memory at a rumored $250 price. It is unknown if more models will be announced but it was said earlier this month by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger that moving forward Intel will produce fewer SKUs due to a lesser need for discreet graphics but this statement should be examined from multiple perspectives.

Intel’s first round of Arc A-Series discreet GPUs included five different models: A310, A380, A580, A750, and A770 (available in either 8GB or 16 GB variants). While the A770 proved it could compete in the gaming sector for 1080p, and some 1440p, and the A750 did okay at 1080p, not much else in the product stack could take on offerings from rivals AMD and NVIDIA. Those cards might suffice as low-cost alternatives for desktop users whose CPUs did not include an iGPU or needed something for basic content creation but that market sector increasingly is a niche within a niche scenario, something largely unsustainable within the PC community.

Celestial and Druid

Gelsinger’s statements could easily be interpreted as acknowledging this given they also address the strains on Intel’s resources for complex socket designs across multiple platforms with multiple SKUs for its CPU lines. The Arc Celestial series is expected to launch in 2026 alongside Intel’s mobile Panther Lake CPUs. Those Xe3-based GPUs might hit the market by the end of 2025, it’s claimed but it’s unknown when Druid will launch.

However, in a post responding to rumors that Battlemage is the end of the line for Arc desktop graphics, Pc hardware info leaker JayKihn (via NotebookCheck) states there’s confusion regarding Intel’s commitment and clarifies Intel may be discontinuing laptop discreet graphics, not desktop. To emphasize the previous statement Intel could be considering not producing graphics cards for laptops and this would make perfect sense given its attention to mobile processors and well-established history of iGPU development. Essentially Intel is still committed to the desktop graphics card sector for Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid, at least for now.

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The post Intel Is Still Committed to Releasing Arc Celestial and Arc Druid Graphics Cards Following Battlemage, According to Latest Rumor appeared first on The FPS Review.

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