Skip to main content

Intel’s highly anticipated new graphics card is releasing before the end of the year

It looks like we’ll be seeing Intel’s upcoming Battlemage GPUs before the end of the year. Intel reportedly held a conference with Asus today that covered everything from updates to Intel’s current instability crisis to upcoming Arrow Lake CPUs. But an interesting tidbit about Battlemage GPUs, which are gunning for a slot among the best graphics cards, is what stood out.

VideoCardz picked up the news, which was originally shared on the Weibo forums. The poster attended the event, and they claim that Intel says Battlemage graphics cards will be out before the end of the year. That makes sense. We know Intel’s Lunar Lake CPUs, which include integrated graphics built on the same architecture, are due out in September. We’ve also seen several shipments of engineering samples emerge, suggesting a launch is close.

Recommended Videos

The post doesn’t include any photos of Battlemage, nor any slides claiming that a release is coming this year. At the moment, this is just a rumor. It’s certainly possible Battlemage shows up before the end of the year, however. It’s been two years since the release of the Arc A770 and A750, and Intel would want to get its next-gen GPUs out before the competition from AMD and Nvidia. Still, Intel hasn’t publicly confirmed its next-gen GPUs are launching before the end of the year.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Outside of GPUs, Intel had some other interesting updates. Concerning next-gen Arrow Lake desktop chips, Intel said it will be able to hit the same clock speeds that we’ve seen with 14th-gen CPUs while consuming 100 watts less. The company also assured the crowd that these CPUs will be stable — an important note with the crashing issues facing 13th-gen and 14th-gen CPUs.

The company also reportedly addressed the microcode update for 13th-gen and 14th-gen CPUs, which is due to arrive in mid-August. The report claims that this update won’t reduce performance on 13th-gen and 14th-gen CPUs, which was one of the main questions we asked Intel concerning its instability problem. Even still, the company has yet to provide Digital Trends with a statement on if the microcode update will reduce performance.

We should know more about Intel’s plans for the second half of the year in September. Following the Lunar Lake launch, Intel is holding its Innovation event on September 24, where we could hear more about Battlemage and Arrow Lake.

Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
Nearly two years later, AMD’s RX 7000 GPUs don’t even make up 1% of Steam players
RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT on a pink background.

AMD's latest RX 7000 GPUs may be some of the best graphics cards you can buy, but they aren't popular among gamers, at least according to the latest Steam hardware survey. Only one of AMD's RDNA 3 graphics cards even shows up on the survey, with the RX 7900 XTX occupying just 0.37% -- down by 0.03% compared to last month.

It's worth noting that Steam doesn't list every GPU represented in the hardware survey each month, but it at least lists every GPU that represents a decent chunk of players. For context, the lowest-ranking GPU on the list is AMD's RX 5500 XT at just 0.16% of players. Other RX 7000 GPUs like the excellent RX 7900 GRE are likely represented further down, though with a share of only one-tenth of 1% or less.

Read more
The Nvidia app just added a feature I’ve wanted for years
A screenshot of the Nvidia app.

Nvidia just released a big update for its Nvidia app. If you're unfamiliar, Nvidia has been slowly integrating features and settings from GeForce Experience, the Nvidia Control Panel, and other apps like FrameView and ICAT into a single application, aptly named the Nvidia app, making it easier to manage your graphics card. And the latest update includes a feature that I've been wanting for years -- driver rollback.

It's a good idea to keep your GPU drivers up to date. New drivers come with performance improvements, as well as specific optimizations for new game releases. Still, driver releases aren't perfect. You can almost guarantee that some drivers on some configurations will run into strange bugs or performance issues. Here's just one example from a Steam user who saw crashes in Ghost of Tsushima after a driver update, and another who saw crashes in Farming Simulator 22. These issues are almost never widespread, but they're bound to happen to some gamers. Driver rollback gets around the problem.

Read more
Nvidia is reportedly sunsetting the RTX 4090
The RTX 4090 sitting alongside the Fractal Terra case.

The RTX 4090 is undoubtedly the best graphics card you can buy right now from a performance standpoint, but Nvidia is reportedly discontinuing the flagship GPU. Reports from the Board Channel forums (shared by Wccftech) suggest Nvidia is preparing to end production of the RTX 4090 and the China-exclusive RTX 4090D starting next month in order to make way for next-gen RTX 50-series graphics cards.

It's not surprising that Nvidia would wind down production of the RTX 4090 as the next generation of graphics cards approaches. Flagship GPUs like the RTX 4090 don't have much of a shelf life after a new generation has released, which is something we saw in action with the RTX 3090. Although Nvidia could end production of the GPU in October (the company itself hasn't, and likely won't, confirm that detail publicly), the card won't immediately disappear from store shelves.

Read more