Intel will be switching Arc naming to C-series with next-gen Xe3P GPUs

Intel ready to confuse again with next-gen Arc GPUs named C-series for Xe3P on desktop, while Xe3 is on next-gen Panther Lake laptop CPUs.

Intel will be switching Arc naming to C-series with next-gen Xe3P GPUs
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Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Intel's Xe GPU architecture roadmap reveals upcoming Panther Lake CPUs with Xe3 GPU chiplets, continuing under the B-series naming despite being next-gen. The shift from discrete GPUs to SoCs causes naming confusion, as Intel delays moving to the C-series until the Xe3P architecture launch.

Intel has discussed a little more about its Xe GPU architecture and its upcoming roadmap, with some confusing name changes on the way unfortunately.

Intel will be switching Arc naming to C-series with next-gen Xe3P GPUs 32
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During its Intel Tech Tour event, Intel unveiled a slide titled "GPU IP & Product Family Roadmap" which laid out its coming releases. There is a slide that includes all of the Xe GPU architectures: Alchemist discrete GPUs, Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake CPUs, as well as its next-gen Panther Lake CPUs which will feature Xe3 GPU chiplets.

The naming scheme seems to be changing with Xe3, which isn't good to see as a few years ago when Intel announced its GPU roadmap, it was clear: Xe was Alchemist, Xe2 was Battlemage, Xe3 was Celestial, and Xe-Next was Druid. These names referred to discrete GPUs (Xe-HPG variants) that Intel was working on at the time, but now the company doesn't like to talk about discrete GPUs... it puts all of its focus on pushing SoCs (regular CPUs with integrated GPUs).

Intel released a new slide that doesn't even mention Celestial, and it also didn't separate SoCs and discrete GPUs, which means one of two things. First, Intel is leaving the discrete graphics card space -- like those rumors said years ago -- or that they're not very good at making slides (I don't believe this).

However, in the slides, Intel's new Panther Lake CPUs that pack the new Xe3 GPU architecture, were placed under the "B-series" with the "B" normally referring to Battlemage (the current-gen Xe2 GPU architecture). Weird, huh?

At the Intel Tech Tour event, PCWorld talked to ex-NVIDIA staffer and now Intel Fellow, Tom Peterson, who was asked about this very thing specifically. Peterson confirmed that Panther Lake will stay under the B-series, because it's not the right time to move to the C-series.

Peterson said: "The way to think about it, Xe3 is our next-generation architecture. We launched it here at Intel Tech Tour 2025, and we're using it in Panther Lake. So there's no question about the architecture. Now, the naming within our SoCs is a bit of a complex question".

He continued: "We decided to keep the B-series name for Panther Lake to build on all the good work we did with Battlemage. People know about the B-series, they know about the B580, and they're familiar with our naming. We're not ready to move to "C" yet -- it's just not the right time. When we move to our next architecture, which we've also teased a bit -- Xe3P -- that will be when we make the naming change".

Personally, I don't think many people -- outside of enthusiasts, etc who keep up with every single GPU generation and naming scheme for them -- know about Intel and its B-series. A naming change for the smallest GPU maker out of the three -- NVIDIA and AMD -- wouldn't matter, they'd just do it. Again, very weird.