In an interview at CES24, Intel Fellow Tom Petersen went into detail about Intel’s upcoming graphics cards, the Xe2 Battlemage line.
Battlemage, Intel’s second unit in the Arc range of graphics cards, seems to be on track for a 2024 launch, with Petersen confirming that the cards are performing in Intel’s labs. Hardware development is complete, and the focus is now on the software of Battlemage.
Petersen also stated that around 30% of Intel’s graphics card engineers are working on Battlemage, primarily on software. Most of the engineers have moved on to the next generation of cards, known as Celestial.
“It’s coming, I am excited about it, and all our engineers, you know how they are constantly doing their engineering things. I’d say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing (Celestial). So, think about it as the Battlemage already has its first silicon in the labs which is very exciting and there’s more good news coming which I can’t talk about right now. We hope we are going to see it before CES ’25.” Petersen said in the interview.
Fans will be pleased with this dedication to the software – the Xe1 Alchemist, Intel’s first-generation graphics cards, had notably finicky drivers, with PC Gamer damning them with faint praise: “less buggy than expected.”
When will Xe2 Battlemage be released?
Despite speculation, there is no confirmed release date for Xe2 Battlemage yet. The Xe1 Alchemist was hit by delays which disappointed fans. This may discourage Intel from giving a launch date until they are certain they can meet it to avoid further disappointment.
There is a huge degree of hope resting on the success of Intel’s graphics offerings. PC gaming graphics has been a two-horse race between Nvidia and AMD for a long time and the introduction of a third option into the market promises more options and fairer pricing for consumers.
Featured image credit: Intel
