Intel’s next-gen Arc Battlemage GPUs are “significantly better” than Alchemist in its current phase

While the Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs are now officially launching and launching next week, the majority of AXG is already hard at work on their next-gen Battlemage GPUs.

Intel is shifting most of the AXG team to Battlemage development, which Raja calls “significantly better” than Alchemist in its current phase

Yesterday we got our first taste of Arc Alchemist GPUs for the mainstream segment, and while the potential is there, the main bottleneck for Intel right now is the driver stack. In short, Intel’s real work begins now that the Arc Alchemist GPUs will be rolling out to consumers over the coming week and the gaming audience will be the ones helping to develop the Arc software ecosystem by using it test and provide valuable game performance and stability data to Intel.

But while Intel continues to improve its drivers, Intel is already working on its next-generation GPU architecture called Battlemage. In fact, Raja Koduri, the head of the Arc GPU division, has himself sat at an Arc graphics roundtable, spilling the beans on what we can expect from their next-gen Arc lineup.

Raja said that the bulk of the silicon team has already been moved into Battlemage development and also into platform engineering, while also working on early software resources.

Most of the Silicon team is working on Battlemage and platform engineering, and some of the software resources have been, too […]

Raja Koduri, Head of Intel AXG and Executive Vice President

Speaking of comparisons to the Alchemist GPUs, since Intel has already released their 1st Gen Arc GPUs, they have a reference point to compare. Compared to where Alchemist was in the same place as Battlemage is now, the next-gen GPU is significantly better and when we combine that with the second statement that the engine is getting bigger and better, we can safely expect Intel to hit the high reaches -end range that sits alongside NVIDIA’s and AMD’s next-gen GPUs (Ada & RDNA 3).

We are in the second generation. For the first generation there wasn’t a good reference point to compare so now that you have a reference point we have comparisons.

For example, we track the number of open bugs and when we start a project we set some performance targets and do pre-silicon verification.

So if we look at all these vectors, it (Battlemage) is way better at this point than where Alchemist was around.

Raja Koduri, Head of Intel AXG and Executive Vice President

Raja Koduri also mentioned that they really need to focus on the driver and software stack because as the engine keeps getting bigger, there needs to be a driver ecosystem that also ensures it is used to its full potential.

Last month, Raja Koduri squashed all the rumors online that the Arc brand has been canceled and it looks like the reality rather than a cancellation is quite different as Intel’s design teams are already working on the Battlemage DG3 and Celestial GPUs the next generation work.

We’re not going anywhere in our discreet business. And our discrete business is the foundational technology development that feeds into both the data center and embedded GPUs. I feel like there is a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) out there. I just want to be clear: we’re not going anywhere,” he continues.

What I happen to think – Pat and I and Roger and Lisa and Ryan all agree – is that graphics is a critical technology for the consumer, a critical technology for the data center, and we want to compete in the mainstream space where our competitors make a ton of money. So all three things are critical to Intel.

Most of our ASIC team is on Battlemage. A small part of this relates to our future, which is heavenly. And then there’s a very small part of Alchemist today, but they’re kind of different feature sets. Like a board and what I call chip teams are on Alchemist right now. Think of it as getting our board just right, getting our BIOS just right, and doing the final tuning. But the majority of our design team works on Battlemage.

Our plan is to start here. And then we add on top and then we add on top. And it’s not a really difficult strategy to understand because we’re going to start with the volume segment of the market and then grow into higher and higher performing segments over time.

Intel’s Tom Peterson on PCGamer

Intel also lays out its plan to first reach the mainstream and volume market with Arc Alchemist GPUs, and then move into the high-performance and enthusiast segment with Arc Battlemage GPUs and beyond. Of course, we’ll first have to wait and see the Arc 7 series in action before we can start talking about next-gen stuff, but it’s exciting for gamers and content creators that Intel has a lineup that’s aimed at bringing more competition to bring to the graphics market.

Intel ARC gaming GPU lineup

News source: RedGamingTech