Intel rumored to use GDDR7 memory on its next-gen Arc GPU: Xe3 'Celestial' should be first

Intel is looking to hire someone that is an expert in memory tuning and qualification for its GPU department, someone who is ready to work on GDDR7 memory for Intel's graphics division... well then.

NVIDIA launched its new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs earlier this year, with new GDDR7 memory inside, while AMD launched its new Radeon RX 9070 series GPUs with GDDR6... but it looks like Intel is scoping out GDDR7 memory chips for its future Arc GPUs according to a new job listing spotted by @Haze2K1 on X.

The new job posting is looking for someone in Toronto, Canada with the job description reading: "The memory sub-system validation engineer is responsible to drive and deliver pre- and post-silicon validation and characterization of GDDR6/7 on Intel's ARC products".

We could see Intel's next-gen Xe3 "Celestial" GPUs using GDDR7 memory, after its Xe2 "Battlemage" GPUs rolled out with GDDR6 memory. It's interesting to see a potential world where Intel has GDDR7 memory chips on its discrete GPUs before AMD does. NVIDIA has been outfitting its GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs with GDDR7 memory chips, so we should expect Team Blue to enter the GDDR7 graphics card battle in 2026 with Celestial.

Intel's next-gen Celestial GPU has been rumored for fabbing on Intel's in-house Intel Foundry instead of TSMC, with an enhanced Xe3P architecture and huge performance improvements according to recent leaks earlier this year. The "P" in Xe3P stands for "Performance" so those leaks from earlier this year + new leaks of the use of GDDR7 make sense.