Intel Battlemage rumor is good news for a change - GPUs could arrive in time for Black Friday

Intel's next-gen graphics cards could be with us in November 2024, or maybe even before that, if a new rumor pans out.

VideoCardz noticed a report from ComputerBase about the incoming Battlemage GPUs, flagged up by the editor of Hardwareluxx, Andreas Schilling, on X (formerly Twitter).

We're told that there were whispers at Embedded World 2024 in Germany, coming from Intel's partners who believe that Team Blue is aiming to get Arc Battlemage GPUs out before Black Friday of this year, to hit that peak sales period.

That means we could see the 2nd-gen graphics cards in the middle of November, or maybe even in October - Intel is supposedly targeting a launch in the fall of this year.

Surprising news

This is somewhat surprising considering what else we've heard from the rumor mill regarding the launch timeframe for Battlemage, with other leaks painting a more pessimistic picture.

Moore's Law is Dead has been consistently talking about Intel making slow progress with Battlemage, and that there's a chance these next-gen graphics cards could slip to early 2025, even - though the YouTuber does admit Q4 is still very possible.

This latest chatter from the grapevine, then, is a welcome indication that the final quarter of 2024 is still the likely launch timeframe, and that we might even see Battlemage earlier in that quarter rather than later.

If Battlemage GPUs are brand-new on the shelves, we wouldn't imagine any huge Black Friday discounts will accompany them - though you never know, perhaps this could be part of Intel's tactics to make some waves and disrupt the GPU duopoly a bit more.

Or at the very least, we'll see some pretty sharp bargains in terms of outgoing Arc Alchemist graphics cards. And that could still be good news for those on the hunt for a good wallet-friendly GPU.

Speaking of boards at the budget end of the GPU spectrum, it's likely that what we'll see with Battlemage is lower-tier products. If the rumors are right, the top-end 2nd-gen Arc graphics card might run with 40 Xe Cores - or even fewer than that.

Moore's Law is Dead has certainly theorized that Battlemage will be low-end only in the past, although more recently, the leaker changed his tune to suggest that maybe we could see something more towards the mid-range.

Wherever Intel pitches these graphics cards, if Battlemage is priced competitively, it could be a potent force at the entry-level of the GPU market - and hopefully beyond (but there certainly won't be anything at the higher-end, just as is the case with Alchemist).