Well, Intel has just announced its new generation of graphics cards, the Arc B580 and Arc B570, which are basically nothing more than entry-level GPUs. What’s more, we were somewhat surprised to see Intel tackle this sector and not the high-end, as NVIDIA would do when launching a new generation. At the same time, we have learned that Celestial has been completed on the hardware front, with only the software left to be finished!
Celestial – Intel’s top of the range?
What worries us about the Battlemage series is that Intel didn’t announce its range by unveiling the B770 and B750 as we might have expected. However, rumours were pointing to high-performance cards, perhaps too high-performance, with some suggesting a B770 to rival NVIDIA’s RTX 4080, but we’re not buying it. And it’s this lack of announcement that makes us fear a cancellation or non-launch of these references.
However, a slightly crazy idea comes to mind: what if we had C770s and C750s as high-end GPUs? We would then have a range segmented as follows:
- B580 and B570 at entry level
- C770 and C750 in the mid-range and top range
What makes us think this is also the delay accumulated by Intel for the launch of Battlemage. If we take a closer look, the first models in the series will not see the light of day until December 12, and are targeted at competing entry-level cards that are reaching the end of their life. Launching more expensive models now would be suicidal, especially with new generations from AMD and NVIDIA on the way. With Celestial, however, the newcomers will be back on their feet, offering cards of the same generation, even if launched a few months after their rivals. A few months’ delay is better than two years, especially with life cycles of 1.5 to 2 years.
In short, these are just our interpretations. Honestly, we’re getting it out of our crystal ball.
