Intel may be working on another Arc Battlemage graphics card, this time powered by the faster PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. The use of such a link hints at a more powerful GPU, but whether it will target consumers or professionals remains to be seen.
Your first instinct probably points towards the much-awaited Arc B770. Rumoured to launch sometime in Q4 2025, this gaming graphics card could offer a noticeable performance uplift compared to its smaller siblings, and using a faster interface wouldn’t look out of place. I’d be willing to bet all is not what it seems, however.
Looking at the PCI-SIG integrators list that hints at this very x16 option, you’ll spot two other PCIe 5.0 x8 entries dated May 8. While I can’t say for certain that 99D5KJ and 99CW89 relate to Arc Pro B60 and B50, the two professional cards debuted mere weeks after this filing using the same interface. It seems more likely we’ll see another workstation solution rocking Gen 5 than the Arc gaming line take the leap as both B580 and B570 only carry PCIe 4.0 x8.
Either way, this mysterious x16 card, if it ever sees the light of day, could leverage a bigger BMG-G31 GPU. In that case, rumours suggest that such a chip would pack up to 32 Xe2 cores, which would mark a 60% increase over the BMG-G21 powering existing B500 and B Pro series cards. More VRAM and a larger 256-bit memory bus also seem logical for such a product.
A third, but boring, option could be Arc Pro B60 Dual presented by Maxsun during Computex. This contraption combines two B60 GPUs on a single PCB, each being treated as a separate entity. In other words, each connects to the motherboard using half of the PCIe 5.0 x16 lanes, requiring motherboard support for lane bifurcation. The issue with this theory is that the listing specifically indicates PCIe 5.0 x16 and not 2x PCIe x8, plus the company is listed as Intel instead of Maxsun. As far as we know, B60 Dual is a Maxsun thing, not Intel’s.
In any case, both Intel’s official talk and ongoing rumours indicate that the brand isn’t done yet with its Battlemage series. So, perhaps we may get both a gaming and a professional card powered by PCIe 5.0 x16 and the BMG-G31 GPU.
