Intel Arc GPUs just got faster – and next-gen graphics cards are on track
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Intel’s Arc GPUs are still well on track when it comes to its next-gen offerings, Battlemage and Celestial, plus Alchemist GPUs just got a major update that makes them run much faster with some of the best PC games.
Raja Koduri gave updates on a number of topics in an interview with gadgets 360 (opens in new tab) (G360), in which Intel’s graphics guru gave us solid confirmation that the chip giant is still sticking to its intended future roadmap for GPUs. Namely, the launch of Battlemage in 2023 and Celestial in 2024 (although third-generation cards may shift to 2025).
G360 asked, “Are you sticking to the Roadmap for Battlemage and Celestial?”
To which Koduri replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
G360 also polled Koduri about optimizing for the “top 100 games” which are still DX9 and DX11, with older titles being an area where Arc graphics drivers have been underpowered, and the Intel exec noted that in this regard, “I think that you should see a big update for Christmas.
And sure enough, just a few days after this interview took place, Intel released a new driver update with those promised improvements – and they were big leaps in performance indeed.
With Arc driver version 31.0.101.3959 we are talking big boosts for League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (huge hit games on DX9) and for DOTA 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX11). For example, Counter-Strike got a 77% boost in 1080p resolution, which is pretty incredible, and League of Legends a still very substantial 37% gain (compared to the Arc driver in October).
Analysis: A Promising GPU Road Ahead?
As for the roadmap, it’s good to hear that Koduri sounds very positive about the upcoming Battlemage and Celestial graphics cards. Of course, given Alchemist’s rollout – and any hardware launch schedule in general, to be fair – it would be foolish to make any concrete promises at this stage.
The other good news here is that when Battlemage arrives, we can expect a significant performance jump, not only from the generational gains delivered by the new hardware, but also those Arc drivers that are constantly improving.
This latest driver is still in beta – which means it’s just for testing right now, and it can be a little crazy – but the release version will no doubt follow soon enough and offer a huge performance boost with some games showing real vulnerabilities were for Intel. This follows a number of driver updates that have already delivered a host of improvements, for example gains of up to 20% over the course of a month with the flagship A770 GPU.
If that kind of progress continues – and works to iron out glitches and ensure better overall compatibility with a range of games, as well as improving frame rates – Intel will be in a much better shape to challenge Nvidia and AMD. There’s a clear opportunity at the lower end of the market, with king-of-the-GPU hill Nvidia constantly overlooking the budget arena.
Intel already has about a 4% to 5% market share of the discrete GPU world, we heard recently, and that could well reach double digits if Battlemage weaves in some increasingly powerful frame-rate wizardry. Furthermore, if the next generation of RDNA 3 products also come out strong and bolster AMD’s market share, Nvidia’s consistent 70% to 90% hold on desktop graphics could finally be broken.
Through WCftech (opens in new tab)