Battlemage Is Next: Intel Teases Next-Gen GPU Launch In Xe2 Video

Intel has been adamant that it plans to continue developing discrete GPUs after getting back in the game with Arc Alchemist, which at the time ended a long hiatus dating all the way back to Larrabee. The next big release is Battlemage, and in no uncertain terms, Intel's Tom 'Tap' Peterson teased in a recent Architecture All Access video, "Battlemage is next."

The video in question is the fourth in the Architecture All Access series and is almost entirely focused on Intel's Xe2 GPU architecture as it relates to the company's Core Ultra 200V architecture, otherwise known as Lunar Lake. It's mostly a rehashing of details we already covered in the graphics portion of our Lunar Lake deep dive, with Peterson reiterating some high-level and mid-level details on Xe2's makeup and how it functions.

He also doubles down on performance claims, saying Lunar Lake delivers a 25% gen-on-gen gaming performance uplift, with some titles showing a 50% gain. He further claims "significant wins" over AMD's HX 370 (16%) and Qualcomm's X1E-84-100 (68%), otherwise known as Snapdragon X Elite, and talks about what XeSS can bring to the table. After around 8 minutes of talking about Xe2, Peterson drops the Battlemage teaser.

"Now as you know, Xe2 is our new architecture appearing first in our new Core Ultra [200V] processors codenamed Lunar Lake. But that's just the beginning—stay tuned, Battlemage is next," Peterson says at the end of the video.

While no release date is yet official, the shout out to Battlemage reinforces recent rumors claiming Intel will launch its next-gen graphics card lineup in December. Should that happen, it will have a head start against AMD and NVIDIA, both of which are expected to announce a new round of GPUs in early 2025. In particular, NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang is scheduled to deliver a keynote at CES, which will likely serve as the launchpad for the GeForce RTX 50 series based on Blackwell.

Intel's latest messaging also comes on the heels of several recent Battlemage leaks, including an ASRock Arc B580 Steel Legend listing appearing briefly on Amazon, followed by an Arc B580 Limited Edition listing at Provantage.