According Taiwan Commercial Times, Intel is awarding TSMC another contract this time for next-gen Intel Arc graphics namely the upcoming Intel Arc Battlemage and Arc Celestial GPUs. Intel is set to double shader counts on Battlemage which is expected to exponentially increase performance on their next-GPUs. Battlemage is set to be fabbed on TSMC 4nm (N4) node while the 3rd-generation Intel Arc graphics architecture will be fabbed on 3nm.
Intel Battlemage Xe2 is expected to debut on H2 2024 while Celestial may arrive on 2026 according to sources. Arc Celestial aka Xe3 will mark another customer to take advantage of 3nm but on TSMC’s 3N node by which time, current customers may probably have moved on the a more cutting edge node by that year should TSMC not face any developmental challenges.
Its suggested that Intel may be looking at strong growth in the GPU market and customers may look at Intel should the company be able to provide a more powerful GPU by next-gen especially at a time when NVIDIA and AMD seems to refuse to cater to mid-range and low-end first, an opportunity ripe for an upstart in the gaming GPU market space.
In the meantime, Intel is set to release a refresh of Arc Alchemist this year or Xe+ to continue to play on the midrange market.
