Rumors and reports for Intel’s upcoming Battlemage graphics cards have been steady since at least 2023, which, if true, could be a boon for gamers looking for more budget-minded components.
Now there’s a brand new leak, shared on the Weibo forums by Chinese tech blogger Little Pigeon (reported on by VideoCardz), which alleges the new cards will be released before the end of 2024. According to this blogger, Intel reportedly held a conference with Asus in which the former provided the latest updates on the manufacturer.
The blogger also asserted that Battlemage promises significant performance boosts, though nothing else was revealed at this event. This is consistent with recent reports that we should be seeing generational improvements in performance, even when current and next-gen cards have the same number of cores. However, make sure to take these rumors with a huge grain of salt, as there aren’t any slides proving these claims.
Other interesting rumors also surfaced revolving around Intel’s upcoming Raptor Lake processors. Apparently, the microcode update for the 13th and 14th Gen Core series will not impact turbo boost capabilities, meaning that overclocking functionality will be maintained. The new processors will also have at least 100W lower power consumption while maintaining performance and eliminating previous high voltage issues that will increase stability.
More budget cards in the future?
Intel’s graphics cards, the Arc series, are highly underrated in terms of price versus performance, giving you incredible value for your money. And with Battlemage possibly coming in late 2024 or early 2025, we have a chance to get even more budget-oriented cards for gamers.
This news coincides with another rumor — that AMD may be launching its own budget graphics cards, the RX 7400 and RX 7300. If all these rumors turn out to be true, we could be seeing some of the most variety in the lower-end market in years. The last several generations have been plagued by a mix of expensive mid- and high-end cards coupled with virtually no true low-end options.
Not only that, but the competitive aspect could spur updates for the possible upcoming ones and development for any future models, which naturally means better quality products, better sales, and an incentive to keep manufacturing budget cards.
It would be nice if the current issues plaguing the launch of Team Blue and Team Red’s processors could also be avoided. If that stretches to the budget cards, it could kill any hard-earned momentum. We’ll just have to see, but let’s wait until Intel and AMD actually confirm these graphics cards first.
