Intel Continues Its Desktop GPU Journey as New Battlemage Models Appear in Shipping Records

Alright, let’s dive into this curious little saga involving Intel and their whole shenanigan around GPUs, which honestly, feels a bit like chasing shadows sometimes. So, where was I? Right – Battlemage. Sounds like a character you’d unlock in a video game, not a GPU.

So basically, Intel pulled a fast one on us last year. They rolled out these GPUs called Arc B580 and B570. People went kinda nuts over them, because let’s face it, when the usual suspects — NVIDIA and AMD — are sitting around backstage, anything that shows up under the spotlight grabs attention. And then? Nada. It’s like they ghosted us on the whole desktop GPU front. People started speculating, you know, the way folks do when they haven’t heard anything substantial – was Intel just daydreaming about making it big in the GPU world?

But hold up. This shipping thingy — yeah, shipping manifests, or whatever they call it — has spilled the beans that something called the “BMG-G31” is lurking backstage. Now, this is supposed to be some hefty stuff, rumored to be carrying some serious gear like 24-32 Xe2 cores, 256-bits of memory bus, and a good helping of 16GB GDDR6 memory. But then, confusion trickled in. Was it getting canned? Not hitting store shelves? I read somewhere that Intel might just be tinkering with this for R&D, to flex its muscles in AI and professional landscapes. So, basically for the tech-savvy geeks out there, not your Average Joe.

Speaking of mystique and riddles, there’s another name in the mix – BMG “C32.” It’s got people scratching their heads because it blends Battlemage with something called Celestial. Does that make sense? Not really. But the rumor mill (and some dude on Twitter) thinks it’s a beefed-up version of that G31 thing. So Intel might not be sleeping on just one, but tripping over multiple Battlemage iterations.

Ah, Intel’s got this shiny new CEO too, and word is that AI is pretty much their new BFF. So while they dream big about this Xe3 “Celestial” architecture, heavily hyped to slide into Panther Lake SoCs, it sounds plausible that GPUs aren’t entirely off their blueprint. Only, they’re moonlighting for AI gigs instead of spreading love to desktop users.

I dunno, it’s intriguing. Maybe it’s all strategic or perhaps just glorified procrastination. But it’s Intel, so one expects the unexpected, right?