Intel's next-gen Battlemage Xe2 and Celestial Xe3 GPUs rumored to be delayed, even cancelled

Intel hasn't had the best time with its Arc GPUs, and now with fresh rumors that its next-gen Battlemage Xe2 and Celestial Xe3 GPUs could be delayed or outright cancelled... ugh.

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In a new post by leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, he said: "There is no trace of Battlemage at all, there will be no DG3 next year". Intel was expected to debut its new Arc Battlemage Xe2 GPU inside of its next-generation Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" CPUs, but maybe not.

Intel's future-gen Xe3 Celestial (DG3) was meant to make an appearance with the future-gen Panther Lake CPUs as an integrated Xe3-LPG GPU, but Golden Pig Upgrade says there will be no DG3 next year. Panther Lake is coming in 2025, and will need an integrated GPU... so if Battlemage and Celestial are off the table, what does Intel have left? Alchemist?

Golden Pig Upgrade wasn't detailed on whether this was the GPU tiles for future processors from Intel, or the discrete graphics cards, so there's also that to consider. Recent rumors suggested that Intel wouldn't have next-gen Battlemage GPUs for laptops and that it would only be offered in discrete GPU form, but we all know whatever Intel is cooking, it's not going to come close to its competitors in AMD and NVIDIA.

• Read more: Intel Arc GPU effectively cancelled: 'decision has been made'
• Read more: Intel rumored to not have next-gen Battlemage GPUs for laptops, only discrete
• Read more: Intel Arc Battlemage Xe2 GPUs confirmed: in the lab, next-gen Celestial Xe3 GPUs teased

Intel killing off its in-house GPU would be a disaster in countless ways, but if it happens... what does Intel do for integrated graphics from here on out? CPUs aren't just CPUs anymore... they have integrated GPUs, NPUs for AI workloads, and other parts that make up a processor now.

AMD has its in-house Ryzen GPU architecture inside of its CPUs with integrated graphics as well as its popular APUs, and Intel has been using its Intel Graphics and now newer Xe-based Arc GPUs on its CPUs for a while now. But to cancel its Battlemage and Celestial GPUs.. what would Intel do for integrated graphics in the coming years?

Who can Intel acquire to have the GPU knowledge, drivers, support and years of experience to tack onto their CPU? Nobody. Intel can't leave itself without a GPU solution moving forward, so this news is pretty big if true.

Further pondering: I wrote a story all the way back in September 2022 off rumors from leaker Moore's Law is Dead that said that the desktop Intel Arc GPUs were so bad that it cancelled discrete Arc GPUs internally. MLID talked to multiple sources at the time, who told him "Arc is finished," and that "the decision has been made," while another said "Intel is ending Arc discrete".

Arc discrete wasn't cancelled, but the numbers were so low it didn't make a difference... and now Battlemage and Celestial are gone, according to Golden Pig Upgrade. Well then.