A few days ago, stores revealed the upcoming Intel Arc B580 next-generation “Battlemage” graphics, which according to previous rumors should go on sale in December. And apparently we already have it confirmed, information leaked about the release date and also about the fact that there won’t be only one Battlemage. Intel is preparing two or three cards. Or at least for now, because more powerful models may be added later, the fate of which is not very clear right now.
VideoCardz has already obtained information on what the Battlemage launch will look like. Intel will make an official unveiling as early as next week 3. 12. on Tuesday. As usual, this will be a presentation of graphics parameters, their technologies and so on, not a direct launch. This will follow soon enough, the cards should be in stores 12. 12. on Thursday. So it gives them a close chance to make it under the tree. If, of course, there are enough pieces in stock at that moment and there are no delays in delivery.
Logically, it would be ideal for Intel to release them in November or earlier, which would allow for most of the pre-Christmas season, but it is possible that the state of preparations simply did not allow it. The near-Christmas release is reminiscent of last year’s Meteor Lake release, where one could sense an effort to get the product out before the end of the year for symbolic and reputational reasons. It is true, however, that Radeon RX 7000s from AMD were also released very late before Christmas, they appeared in stores on 13/12/2022.
Two models
According to VideoCardz, Intel internally confirmed two models (it should be information from card manufacturers), namely the card Arc B580which we knew about (and we basically already know its parameters, see the link below), but it should also be released in addition Arc B570.
The Arc B570 should be a stripped down version of the same (perhaps 4nm) GPU found in the higher end model. While the B580 has 20 Xe Cores (2560 shaders), the B570 could possibly be chopped down to 14 Xe Cores (1792 shaders). GPU samples with this particular configuration were previously leaked to the Internet. VideoCardz, on the other hand, thinks that the configuration could be 18 Xe Cores (2304 shaders), which would bring the B570 model closer to the performance of the full-fat version. The mentioned sample still had 12 GB of memory at a frequency of 19.0 GHz effectively, so the bus and throughput may not be affected. 12GB of memory could be something the card will be able to offer as a specialty against cheap GeForce and Radeons limited to only 8GB of memory.
There has been information that the Arc B580 could officially cost $259 or $249, but it is not yet confirmed. With this recommended amount, it would come to us (after adding VAT) to 7200 CZK or 285 €. We don’t yet have a leaked price for the cheaper B570 model. An attractive price of $199 would be offered (once the draw of the popular Radeons with the Polaris chip), which would be 5750 CZK / 228 € in our case. But wanting doesn’t mean getting, of course, especially with the price tags.
Reference Limited Edition
In addition to this, there was another information, according to which there could even be three models – B570, B580 and B580LE. But the last one is probably a modification of the B580 card and “LE” stands for Limited Edition. Such a Limited Edition card existed in the Alchemist generation from the A770 model, and it was interesting to use a larger 16GB memory (besides, its feature was that it used Intel’s reference design, so it was something like a Founders Edition card from Nvidia).
The Arc B580 with its 192-bit bus normally uses 12GB of memory. It doesn’t seem very likely that the B580LE could have 24GB as it would be quite expensive (and a different PCB with 12 slots for the chips would be required). Intel can probably differentiate it in other ways, for example with higher clocks. Or it will simply be about the design of the card and its cooler. VideoCardz does not rule out that there will also be such a Limited Edition version of the B570.
Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition (reference design from Intel), the previous generation Alchemist card
When will the reviews be?
Cards are due to go on sale on 12/12 (probably 3pm here) and reviews should probably be out on the same day. Intel will reportedly use a similar concept to Nvidia, and reviews of only the reference cards, or even just the Limited Edition models, are expected to be released on this day. Reviews of the various partner non-reference versions are then due a day later on 12/13 (Friday the 13th in December, by the way).
The fate of more powerful models with a bigger chip?
While these models use the smaller BMG-G21 chip with 2560 shaders (20 Xe Cores) and 192-bit memories, Intel had plans for an even more powerful BMG-G31 version with 4096 shaders (32 Xe Cores) and 256-bit memories. This would probably be in the B750 and B770 (or B770 and B780?) models. For this chip, it is still not clear if it will be released. Youtuber Moore’s Law is Dead recently reported that it may possibly be cancelled, but at the same time he claimed the very suspicious information that the chip has yet to be tapeout and Intel planned to do it this quarter (Q4 2024), while the card was supposed to go on the market in Q1 2025.
This seems to be nonsense, as the usual time between tapeout and commercial release is typically quoted as somewhere between 9 to 15 months. Thus his whole report may be someone’s mistaken speculation or similar mistake. Unless the tapeout should already be in the fourth quarter of 2023, then the planned release in Q1 2025 could be fine.
Resources: VideoCardz, Moore’s Law is Dead
Source: www.cnews.cz
