A new shipping manifest indicates that Intel has more Battlemage GPUs in the works than previously rumoured. The new chip is the biggest we’ve seen yet, comprising 56 Xe cores.
According to shipping manifests from India and China, Intel is seemingly working on much larger Battlemage GPUs recorded as X3 and X4. Both boast 448EUs (Execution Units) spread through 56 Xe cores.
Assuming an unchanged Xe core layout, i.e. 128 unified shaders per core, these GPUs could house 7,168 unified shaders. In other words, a whopping 75% increase over Intel’s fastest Alchemist Arc A770 with its 4,096 shading units. Add to that the generational IPC gains, and you have a powerful GPU on hand.
Interestingly, these shipping manifests were quite detailed, giving us additional information, such as a 256-bit memory bus and an eight-layer PCB.
While Intel has yet to reveal its target, the rumour mill discusses performance similar to RTX 4070 Ti. It’s unclear, however, if this larger version is taken into account for these estimations. If not, then Intel may hit harder than expected with its Battlemage architecture, which would be perfect to spark some much-needed competition. In the worst case, we would at least get better pricing on mid- and low-end GPUs.
If Intel continues improving its graphics offerings at this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Microsoft and Sony select it instead of AMD for their next-gen consoles. For desktop users, Intel may deliver enough uplift to make 4K gaming possible. And with the help of XeSS, we may even get high frame rates. I can’t wait for next-gen GPUs; the fight will be intense.