The tech world has been buzzing with news about Nvidia’s upcoming high-end graphics cards, but Intel’s Arc Battlemage has remained shrouded in mystery. However, the silence has been broken, as Intel has quietly included Battlemage graphics cards in its newest media drivers, offering a first glimpse of the next-gen GPUs.
Spotted by VideoCardz, Intel added BMG – the shorthand for Battlemage – to its latest drivers on GitHub. This addition is part of the open-source media driver for the video acceleration API (VAAPI), which handles various codecs for video decoding and encoding. While the BMG column currently appears rather bare, with no encoding support at this stage, it’s important to remember that this is still early days.
Initial whispers suggested a late 2024 launch for Intel Arc Battlemage, but this latest development indicates that might not be the case. With a likely reveal next year, Intel has ample time to refine its drivers and integrate support for the most widely used codecs.
The absence of encoding capabilities at this point means we can only glean insights from the decoding aspect to gauge Battlemage’s potential future features. Currently, there’s no support for versatile video coding (VVC), also known as H.266. This omission is somewhat surprising considering Intel already supports H.266 with its Lunar Lake processors, having beaten both Nvidia and AMD to the punch with this codec. However, it’s possible that Intel could add H.266 support later on, given its efficiency benefits.
While the details are scarce, the inclusion of Battlemage in Intel’s drivers is a clear signal that the next-gen GPUs are in development. Recent leaked benchmarks have already offered a glimpse of what could be the first Intel discrete GPU of this new generation in action.
However, with Intel’s GPU market share dwindling to a mere 0%, the company needs to generate excitement and regain its footing in this competitive landscape. The last official word on Battlemage came from Intel fellow Tom Petersen during an interview in January 2024. Petersen expressed hopes of sharing more information about Battlemage before CES 2025, but stopped short of making any promises. This latest driver inclusion, while subtle, suggests that Intel is closer to unveiling its next-generation graphics cards than previously thought. The stage is set for an exciting showdown in the GPU market, and the world is eagerly awaiting the full reveal of Intel’s Arc Battlemage.