Around mid-March, speculation surfaced in SiSoftware Sandra database entries regarding the lower-tier Intel Arc second-generation GPUs – assessment samples likely in the hands of trusted hardware partners. Yesterday, momomo_us stumbled upon another intriguing shipping manifest, marking another leak following a series of AMD-related leaks.
The latest manifest showcases five "Battlemage" products – three utilizing the BMG-21 GPU, with the remaining two based on the BMG-10 design, identifiers that have surfaced in earlier leaked information.
Previous leaked information suggests that these second-generation Arc models (Xe2) belong to the "High-Performance Graphics" (HPG) discrete GPU series - the Xe2-HPG BMG-10 series is likely targeted at the "enthusiast" market, while the Xe2-HPG BMG-21 series is rumored to offer moderate performance aimed at the mainstream market.
Intel employees express confidence in the potential launch of the product by the end of 2024. As early as January this year, Tom "TAP" Petersen revealed that the Arc hardware team had shifted focus to the development of the third-generation "Celestial" GPU: "I can say, about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mainly on the software side, because our hardware team is working on the next thing. The first generation product doesn't seem to be completely over yet, and in the near future, the 'Alchemist' family might have two new variants joining."
