Intel’s long-rumoured “big Battlemage” GPU die, BMG-G31, could soon see the light of day, but only within the enterprise market. If recent rumours prove true, we should expect the imminent arrival of new Arc Pro B-series graphics cards.
According to jaykihn, regular leaker of all things Intel, the Arc Pro B70 is launching “soon.” Furthermore, jaykihn also claims the GPU will use a BMG-G31 GPU, and arrive with 32GB of GDDR6 VRAM. This marks a 33% increase in capacity over the company’s current single-die design, the Arc Pro B60.
Curiously, Intel’s Arc Pro B70 may not arrive on its lonesome. Fellow leaker Haze2K1 shares that an Arc Pro B65 is in the works too, presumably using a slightly cut-down version of BMG-G31, possibly with fewer memory modules, similar to how Intel separates its Pro B60 and Pro B50.
While details on the BMG-G31 die itself are thin on the ground, we can safely presume it will offer a performance uplift over BMG-G21. Expect a larger die, complete with more Xe2 cores, ray tracing units, and XMX AI engines. All that additional memory should also arrive on a wider 256-bit bus, boosting total bandwidth.
Should Intel launch the Arc Pro B70, it will provide us with the best glimpse of what the rumoured flagship consumer SKU, the Arc B770, would look like. After all, Arc Pro B60 closely mirrors the specifications of Arc B580, with each card sharing the same BMG-G21 die.
However, given the supposed imminent arrival of the Arc Pro B70 and current market conditions, I’m not so sure we’ll ever see Arc B770 come to fruition. Intel has usually launched consumer cards ahead of enterprise offerings, but this doesn’t seem like it’ll be the case this time around.
Then there are profit margins to consider, with revenue from AI data centres massively outweighing that of gamers, providing a better return on ever-expensive memory modules. If more-established players, namely AMD and Nvidia, are having to adjust to the current market with new model prioritisations and reduced GPU manufacturing, it’s reasonable to presume Intel will have to make similar calls.
As a consumer and stout AI sceptic, I’m indifferent to the prospect of more-powerful Arc Pro cards from Intel. That said, I’m curious to see how the BMG-G31 stacks up outside of deep learning applications. For the moment, I’ll keep holding out hope that this potential arrival also signals that Arc B770 isn’t far behind. At least Xe3 (Celestial) graphics are stacking up nicely on Panther Lake.
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