News Intel GPUs - Battlemage officially announced, evidently not cancelled

[Dribble]

You would hope it's better than a 6650XT and 3060; it's a 406 mm² 21.7B transistor die. That's bigger than the 6750XT and 3070 Ti.
It's fine to look at it as really a half decent first step towards dGPUs and I am interested to see what Battlemage brings, but just in a vacuum Alchemist is a pretty disappointing GPU.

That said, Intel's losses are not my problem and at <$350 for the 16GB version it's competitive now and shouldn't have any VRAM issues even in the future which is certainly more than you can say for the GA104 8GB cards or the 4060 Ti.

I'd say it's a pretty impressive gpu being as it's basically a first gen product going up against competition with 20 years+ of history. I do think it'll be much harder for Intel to close the remaining gap and compete equally (silicon size, power usage, bus size for same performance) with the other two, but if Alchemist can take another step forward and the drivers get even more solid Intel should be able sell a few even if they still can't achieve Nvidia like margins.

 

[MrTeal]

I'd say it's a pretty impressive gpu being as it's basically a first gen product going up against competition with 20 years+ of history. I do think it'll be much harder for Intel to close the remaining gap and compete equally (silicon size, power usage, bus size for same performance) with the other two, but if Alchemist can take another step forward and the drivers get even more solid Intel should be able sell a few even if they still can't achieve Nvidia like margins.

Yeah, even outside of better cards moving forward the A770 would be super attractive in its price range just because of the potential driver improvements. It's currently $/perf competitive with AMD and Nvidia at retail, but going forward I would expect that gap to grow as the drivers mature and games move to newer engines.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Even if Intel's dGPU effort fails, the ARC/Battlemage/Celestial legacy may live on in iGPU form, or even as mobile GPU in laptops where they would be able to give attractive CPU/GPU bundling deals to the OEMs.

There's also another possibility. AMD gets tired of its GPU venture and decides to put it on the market for sale. Nvidia won't be able to get them because that would be helping create a monopoly so Intel would be in a good position to acquire AMD's graphics division. And then bring back Raja Koduri as its CTO coz why not?

 

[Aapje]

Even if Intel's dGPU effort fails, the ARC/Battlemage/Celestial legacy may live on in iGPU form

Meteor Lake is going to have an Intel Arc chiplet (assuming it doesn't get cancelled).

 

[DAPUNISHER]

There's also another possibility. AMD gets tired of its GPU venture and decides to put it on the market for sale.

Dream on Eyegore.

Sony is their biggest customer, and graphics are integral to those orders. Microsoft is another big customer with the same needs. Handhelds are the latest burgeoning market/new hotness. AMD APU powered minis are everywhere now. AMD GPUs may not be so popular in the discrete market, but those sectors are blowing up.

With Intel putting ARC tiles on CPUs now, that is another step in the right direction. Another good way to justify some of that 6yrs (or however long this has been a project) of R&D too.

When Ryan and TAP were doing the launch tour, Ryan told a story on one of the podcasts I was listening to. He was playing Stray on his Steam Deck and the person sitting next to him on the flight leaned over and watched him play for 20 minutes or so. In an age where everyone has their own mobile device, that they were captivated enough to do that, had to have made a strong and lasting impression on him. I suspect that division of Intel intends to be competitive in the those markets. If the bean counters axe doesn't find their necks first.

Another podcasts mentioned that Intel handheld kickstarters don't even get near the ballpark of the preorders the AMD ones have. Intel could steal some of their thunder with ARC based APUs powering them. NUC isn't what it once was, it'd be a return to glory there as well. ARC has a lot of potential outside of dGPUs, I hope it fulfills that potential.

 

[mikk]

Meteor Lake is going to have an Intel Arc chiplet (assuming it doesn't get cancelled).

Also Arrow Lake but Lunar Lake is supposed to come with Xe2 and Panther Lake with Xe3 iGPUs.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

The potential for chiplet architectures is so vast, while we may start running into a material science wall with silicon, Chiplets will let us do some fun stuff before we have to find another material to move to (and those materials can keep the tricks we learn from chiplets as well).

 

[Heartbreaker]

The potential for chiplet architectures is so vast, while we may start running into a material science wall with silicon, Chiplets will let us do some fun stuff before we have to find another material to move to (and those materials can keep the tricks we learn from chiplets as well).

Chiplets are a fairly small blip in the scheme of things, that won't change the overall trajectory.

 

[maddie]

Chiplets are a fairly small blip in the scheme of things, that won't change the overall trajectory.

I see you appear to agree with Intel, that its just some glue needed.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Chiplets are a fairly small blip in the scheme of things, that won't change the overall trajectory.

Love to hear more.

 

[NTMBK]

There's also another possibility. AMD gets tired of its GPU venture and decides to put it on the market for sale.

AMD needs graphics for laptops, mainstream desktops, games consoles, and the HPC server market. There's no way in hell they would get rid of their graphics team.

 

[Aapje]

I think that it is a lot more likely that Nvidia gets tired of its gamer business. They don't really need gamers, but could go all in on delivering a strong CUDA platform. AMD needs gamers.

Jensen may consider himself to be cursed with the dominance that Nvidia has over de dGPU market, as they can't abandon it without making investors angry, but he also doesn't really care about it.

 

[Heartbreaker]

AMD needs graphics for laptops, mainstream desktops, games consoles, and the HPC server market. There's no way in hell they would get rid of their graphics team.

Yeah, never going to happen. Once in a while in AMDs darker days, the rumor would come up that AMD was going to sell it's GPU division (to Intel), but it was nonsense. GPU has long been integral for AMDs survival.

For similar reasons, I'm less inclined to believe any rumor than Intel will abandon it's discrete GPUs.

In theory they could could bail out on cards and go back to just iGPU. But IMO, GPU is critical for Intel's future. Having discrete cards means Intel must work MUCH harder to improve it's GPUs.

At some point in the future Windows on ARM will be a very important part of the Windows market, and that will break the x86 Windows duopoly, and anyone will be able to build Windows SoCs/APU/CPUs. Which means the extras will count for a lot, like how good the GPU is. Intel needs much better GPUs when that happens to compete with likes of NVidia for the Windows SoC business.

 

[DooKey]

AMD needs graphics for laptops, mainstream desktops, games consoles, and the HPC server market. There's no way in hell they would get rid of their graphics team.

Yep, they aren't going away. Will they try to compete at the top end? Not sure about that from now on.

 

[NTMBK]

Supermicro Lists Intel Data Center GPU Max 'Ponte Vecchio' Based Machines

www.anandtech.com

Looks like you can finally order a Ponte Vecchio server! Anyone got $10000 burning a hole in their pocket, so we can do some benchmarking?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Update on performance of the A380. Which may be the best NIB budget gaming GPU for modern builds now. 6GB of ram, AV1, and full warranty for $120.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Update on performance of the A380. Which may be the best NIB budget gaming GPU for modern builds now. 6GB of ram, AV1, and full warranty for $120.

Still needs ReBAR.

Is that supported primarily by 10th-gen and newer, and AM4/AM5? Does B350 support it?

 

[Aapje]

Update on performance of the A380. Which may be the best NIB budget gaming GPU for modern builds now. 6GB of ram, AV1, and full warranty for $120.

I'd get a 2nd hand 1660 Super instead, which is way faster and probably suffered less from being used than higher power cards.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd get a 2nd hand 1660 Super instead, which is way faster and probably suffered less from being used than higher power cards.

If you don't mind one that was mined to hell. And doesn't have a NIB warranty.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I'd get a 2nd hand 1660 Super instead, which is way faster and probably suffered less from being used than higher power cards.

Yeah, personal choice to buy used is always a valid option. My take is that the used market is a different beast here in the U.S. we don't get extended warranties, unlike say, CeX, which offers them on used GPUs in some countries. People buying ultra budget GPUs here are usually the ones least able to afford to replace a card if it dies in weeks or months too. It makes a warranty value added in a big way. Ragged out mining cards are not very savory to me either. Having gotten a defective 3060 from Ebay. I also know others here and on other forums that got worn down or worn out cards. Even if they are okay when you get them, for how long?

There are the remanufactured Polaris and RDNA cards with more VRAM for similar money to compete against too. They again, don't really offer a robust warranty so it's more of a dice roll for cash strapped budget gamers. Likely much less so than a straight up used GPU that could have been abused and power washed. ARC A380 is now a great choice for the risk adverse, ultra budget shopper here IMO. Its low power and ITX size is a good thing too. Makes AM4 and lga1200 refurb OEM cases and PSUs less of an issue when trying to slap together something cheap to game on.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OEM

But do OEM BIOSes allow a ReBAR option? ^_^ ???

 

[DAPUNISHER]

But do OEM BIOSes allow a ReBAR option? ^_^ ???

Great point. A quick look says only certain models. I see a guy on Youtube did it with a Omen 30L by updating his HP branded 30 series Nvidia GPU vBIOS. I see a lot more in the support forums saying they have no support. Yet another reason to avoid proprietary OEM. Teach me to try to include them.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Still needs ReBAR.

Is that supported primarily by 10th-gen and newer, and AM4/AM5? Does B350 support it?

Many B350 boards support it with latest bios. They claim you need Zen 2 or newer CPU/APU but I and others have used it with Zen+ on 3 series boards. I had it working with a 2600.

 

[waffleironhead]

But do OEM BIOSes allow a ReBAR option? ^_^ ???

Ive got

2400g/6500xt/HP8433Sunflower(B350)
No Re-bar, though 2400g isnt on the rebar list, so it may be capable.

5700g/6400xt/HP8906Erica6(B550A)
Re-bar on.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Ive got

2400g/6500xt/HP8433Sunflower(B350)
No Re-bar, though 2400g isnt on the rebar list, so it may be capable.

5700g/6400xt/HP8906Erica6(B550A)
Re-bar on.

Thanks for the info, it's great to read that it works with Erica6.