Leak: Intel’s Battlemage desktop GPUs are just days away

Under financial pressures, Intel’s desktop gaming graphics business may be on the chopping block — but it seems that a pair of Battlemages will escape unscathed. Videocardz is reporting that Intel will announce the Arc B580 and B570 graphics cards just days from now on December 3rd, and launch them on December 12th alongside media reviews.

You shouldn’t expect these card to compete at the high-end. Far from it, based on leaked specs that suggest they have fewer cores, less memory, and less memory bandwidth than some of their Intel predecessors.

But they could also be a value leader. Retailer leaks spotted by Momomo_us suggest Intel’s own “Limited Edition” Arc B580 could cost just $250.

While no confirmed specs have surfaced just yet, one particular GPU leak on Amazon suggested that the B580 will feature 20 Xe2 cores, a 2.8GHz GPU clock, 12GB of GDDR6 graphics memory at 19Gbps with a 192-bit memory interface, and require as little as two axial fans and one single 8-pin PCIe power connector (though another variant was spotted with three fans and two connectors.) They may also connect to a motherboard with a PCIe 5.0 x8 connector.

If Videocardz is correct, we won’t have to speculate for long: full confirmed details should arrive this Tuesday.

It’d be nice to see the lower end of the GPU market get shaken up a bit. What with the pandemic, the great GPU shortage, and its aftermath, it’s been a while since big GPU boosts have felt affordable.