Arc "Celestial" Graphics Card Series Linked to "Xe3P" Architecture & Intel Foundry Process

[T0@st]

Last December, Intel revealed that its next-generation "Celestial" GPU architecture was "complete." At the time, Team Blue's Tom "TAP" Petersen revealed: "our IP that's kind of called Xe3, which is the one after Xe2, that's pretty much baked... And so the software teams have a lot of work to do on Xe3. The hardware teams are off on the next thing (aka Xe4/Druid), right." Noted Intel inside info leaker—Raichu—believes that "Celestial" will be: "different from Panther Lake, Celestial dGPU looks like will maybe be based on Xe3P instead of Xe3. I estimate it will (be) based on INTC's process instead of outside." Their Friday evening (February 14) social media declaration suggests that Team Blue is bringing things in-house for the manufacturing of discrete "Celestial" graphics cards; utilizing an Intel Foundry node process, rather than rely on TSMC once more. The latter's foundry produced the Arc "Alchemist" and "Battlemage" dGPU generations.

Intel's rumored "Xe3P" architecture is not a fully known quantity, but reports from last November pointed to the existence of multiple "Xe3" variants; courtesy of information gleaned from an employee's LinkedIn profile. Over the past two weeks, we have witnessed plenty of leaks alluding to future Intel CPU families, but the flow of Arc graphic solutions-related leaks seemingly slowed down around the launch of Intel's budget-friendly "Battlemage" B570 card. Recent-ish insider disclosures have uncovered a possible expansion of the current-gen Arc series, with more SKUs rumored to be on the way. A certain group of industry watchdogs reckon that the unannounced "BGM-G31" GPU will be the basis for higher-end "Battlemage" B-series models, but others believe that options above B580 and B570 are canceled—potentially paving the way for "Xe3P-based" C-series designs later this year, or in 2026.



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[Assimilator]

Would be smarter to go full-steam ahead with Celestial than throw resources at the underwhelming Battlemage, IMO.

But that's only if - and this is a gigantic IF - Intel has actually, positively, 100% sorted out the burning dumpster that is their foundry business and can actually fab chips that aren't steaming turds.

Because if they haven't, and Celestial is bad because of it, that will almost certainly kill Arc deader than it already is.

 

[Solaris17]

Would be smarter to go full-steam ahead with Celestial than throw resources at the underwhelming Battlemage, IMO.

But that's only if - and this is a gigantic IF - Intel has actually, positively, 100% sorted out the burning dumpster that is their foundry business and can actually fab chips that aren't steaming turds.

Because if they haven't, and Celestial is bad because of it, that will almost certainly kill Arc deader than it already is.

I won’t say anything negative about battlemage I already said my peace before its release and it released performing exactly how I thought it would.

I do agree though. They need to catch up; no point in releasing high end BM push for celestial for the holidays.

 

[ZoneDymo]

underwhelming? pretty sure everyone has been very positive about it.

 

[InVasMani]

underwhelming? pretty sure everyone has been very positive about it.

Didn't go far enough though relative to Arc 770 though it is more efficient in relative terms and generally a bit better performing if you don't push resolution and image details too heavily to the point the VRAM becomes more the bottleneck barrier.

 

[Assimilator]

I won’t say anything negative about battlemage I already said my peace before its release and it released performing exactly how I thought it would.

underwhelming? pretty sure everyone has been very positive about it.

"Underwhelming" as in, no high-end option. Because it's not the low-end where enthusiasts are suffering, it's the high-end.

 

[Squared]

There was no low end before the B580 was released. The B580 and B570 are the only $250 and lower cards (by MSRP). Intel literally recreated the market. That's a big deal even if it won't satisfy customers looking for a $800 GPU.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I think its a good sign theyre going to use their own process. To me it never made sense to use the expensive, limited, highly in demand TSMC for an experiment when you have your own fabs you paid insane money to build. Cut out the middle man!

"Underwhelming" as in, no high-end option. Because it's not the low-end where enthusiasts are suffering, it's the high-end.

Agreed. Was really looking forward to B770 (which i think is still happening.....eventually) or maybe a B900 series.

I'm not upgrading this gen so I can hold out hope for a C990 or something like that that would be really interesting as a high end card.

 

[Gunbound]

what is the difference between Xe3 and "Xe3P" ?

 

[rattlehead99]

Would be smarter to go full-steam ahead with Celestial than throw resources at the underwhelming Battlemage, IMO.

But that's only if - and this is a gigantic IF - Intel has actually, positively, 100% sorted out the burning dumpster that is their foundry business and can actually fab chips that aren't steaming turds.

Because if they haven't, and Celestial is bad because of it, that will almost certainly kill Arc deader than it already is.

Battlemage has the best RT right now since Blackwell didn't improve RT. The B580 loses less FPS percentage than Ada/Blackwell.
Battlemage also delivers great performance 99% of games and it's priced well and has 12GB VRAM instead of 8GB.
It's not perfect, but it overachieved, not under.