Intel says it's shifting its focus to next-generation GPUs. Earlier it was reported that the company may close the graphics division of AXG.

“Everyone agrees with the idea that graphics is a mission critical technology for the customer, a mission critical technology for the data center, and we want to start competing in a core area where our competitors are making a ton of money. So all three things are critical to Intel,” said engineer Tom Petersen.

In its roadmap, Intel describes at least three more generations of Arc GPUs - Battlemage, Celestial, and Druid.

Development on Battlemage has already begun, Petersen confirms, and most of the graphics engineers are now focused on the second generation of GPUs. Some of them are even looking into the Celestial's early stats.

Part of the team focused on DX11 support. Intel previously warned that Arc GPUs may experience lower performance for older DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 API games compared to Nvidia and AMD GPUs. The company announced that it will no longer provide hardware support for the DirectX 9 API with solutions based on the Xe architecture in the 12th generation Core processors, as well as Arc A-series discrete graphics cards based on the Arc Alchemist architecture.

While working on Battlemage, engineers are taking action to ensure the GPU "gets to market faster and with fewer surprises."

So far, Intel has not published specific dates for the release of Battlemage, promising to release the GPU in 2023-2024. Celestial promise to bring to the market after 2024.

For now, Intel is focused on releasing the first generation Alchemist Gen cards, with the A770 and A750 coming soon.

bbabo.Net