Intel's Xe3 'Battlemage-next' architecture has been finalized, team already working on Xe4

This week, Intel officially announced the first Xe2 'Battlemage' desktop graphics card, the Intel Arc B580, which will launch on December 13, 2024. With a wallet-friendly price point of $249 USD, 12GB of VRAM, and 1440p performance that outclasses the GeForce RTX 4060, it will be an interesting addition to the GPU landscape when it debuts.

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Intel has finalized the hardware for its third-generation of Arc Graphics and is already working on 'Xe4'.

In a new hourlong interview on PCWorld's The Full Nerd Podcast, Intel's Tom Petersen confirmed that even though the first second-gen Xe2 desktop GPU product is a week away from launch, the Arc team has already finalized the Xe3 'Celestial' architecture and is already working on Xe4. Now, it's up to the software team to ensure that drivers are ready for Xe3's launch.

"Our architects are way ahead of us and they are already working on not the next thing but the next thing after the next thing," Tom Petersen confirms.

"The way I would like to comment is our IP that's kind of called Xe3, which is the one after Xe3, that's pretty much baked, right. And so the software teams have a lot of work to do on Xe3. The hardware teams are off on the next thing, right. That's our cadence, that we need to keep going."

In our briefing on the Intel Arc B580 GPU with Tom Petersen, we asked about the software and driver side of Arc, especially in light of how far things have come since the initial launch in 2022. He told us that the Arc software and driver team has been working nonstop to ensure that Xe2's drivers and game support are the best they can be, so the odds are that it might be a little while before we see a desktop Xe3 GPU.

Of course, Xe3 and Xe4 will be key parts of Intel's mobile APU roadmap, but it's great to hear that the company is continuing to develop and mature its Arc platform to compete with GeForce and Radeon. Xe3 is expected to debut with Intel's upcoming Panther Lake mobile CPUs.

• Read more: Intel Arc B580 'Battlemage' GPU announced - 1440p Ultra gaming for $249
• Read more: Intel Arc B580 is 10% faster than the GeForce RTX 4060, 24% faster than Arc A750
• Read more: Intel announces XeSS 2 with new Frame Generation and Low Latency tech
• Read more: Intel has been testing Battlemage GPU drivers 24/7 to ensure a smooth launch