Intel Leak Points To TSMC Being The Choice For Next-Gen GPUs: 5nm Xe-LPG, 4nm Battlemage, 3nm Celestial & Xe2-LPG

Apr 30, 2023 at 09:21am EDT
Intel Arc GPUs Keep On Getting Better, Latest Linux Driver Further Improves Performance 1

Intel seems to be relying entirely on TSMC for the production of its next-gen GPU dies and IPs based on Alchemist, Battlemage & Celestial architectures.

Intel's Next-Gen Alchemist, Battlemage, Celestial Discrete & Integrated GPUs For Arc & Xe Families To Be Built At TSMC

Korean outlet, gamma0burst, has compiled a list of products that have been and are being worked on by Intel engineers. These listings were spotted over at Linkedin and confirm the processes that are going to be used for next-generation GPUs based on the Alchemist, Battlemage, and Celestial chip architectures.

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Starting first with the discrete GPU, Intel's Arc Alchemist utilized the TSMC 6nm process node and had three variants, the ACM-G10, ACM-G11, and ACM-G12. The last one has yet to be launched but it may likely appear in the Arc Alchemist refresh which is planned for later this year. Intel's Arc line has received various optimizations over the past months along with superb promotional deals that have made them a very good option for mainstream gamers.

Following Intel Alchemist GPUs will be Battlemage and this is going to be a major launch for 2024. It is expected that the Xe2 Battlemage architecture will utilize TSMC's 4nm process node & its follow-up, and the Xe3 Celestial architecture will utilize TSMC's 3nm process node and launch by 2H 2026 which points to a 2-year GPU cadence.

A recently leaked product plan from an Intel Engineer showed that Battlemage Xe2 and Celestial Xe3 GPUs will come in both HPG and LPG flavors. The Battlemage LPG flavors will be used in the Lunar Lake CPUs while Celestial LPG flavors will be used in the Panther Lake CPUs. The discrete GPUs featured in HPG Arc graphics cards will come sooner than the LPG parts and will target the 75-250W segment.

Intel ARC Gaming GPU Lineup

GPU FamilyIntel Xe Next NextIntel Xe NextIntel Xe3PIntel Xe3Intel Xe2Intel Xe+Intel Xe
dGPU ProductsARC E*** GPUsARC Druid GPUsArc Celestial GPUs?ARC Battlemage GPUsARC Battlemage GPUsN/AARC Alchemist GPUs
iGPU ProductsTBATBAArc C-Series?Arc B-SeriesArc 200-SeriesArc 100-SeriesArc Graphics
dGPU SegmentMainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete)Mainstream / High-End Gaming (Discrete)TBCN/AMainstream (Discrete)N/AMainstream (Discrete)
CPU iGPUTBATBAXe3P-LPG (Nova Lake)Xe3-LPG (Panther Lake)Xe2-LPG (Lunar Lake)Xe-LPG+ (Arrow Lake)Xe-LPG (Meteor Lake)
Process NodeTBATBATSMC 2nm?TSMC 3nm / Intel 3TSMC 5nm (3nm Lunar Lake Tile)TSMC 6nmTSMC 6nm
Max Xe CoresTBATBATBA1232?832
Memory SubsystemTBATBAG7/LP5X/LP6?LP5XG6/LP5XG6/LP5XG6/LP5
Launch2028?2027?20262025202420242022

With discrete GPUs out of the way, we now have the integrated GPUs (iGPUs) which Intel refers to as tGPUs (Tiled GPUs) since they are featured on their own dedicated tile on client processors. The three GPU lineups that are listed in this leak:

An Intel engineer's profile at Linkedin has leaked future integrated Xe GPUs and Core desktop lineups. (Image Credits: Harukaze5719)

This isn't particularly new information since the trio of Xe GPUs and even the fourth one known as Xe4 or Druid are official. What's more interesting is the fact that each of these GPUs has an HPG or High-Performance Graphics and an LPG or Low-Power Graphics part. The first generation of Intel's Xe Alchemist architecture has yet to be incorporated by any consumer CPU but we will see it in the action later this year with the Meteor Lake chips which are expected to carry 128 EUs while Arrow Lake will follow up with to 192 EUs.

The integrated GPUs will be part of the tGPU or Tiled GPU arch which is expected to deliver some big performance gains in the graphics department compared to other traditional integrated chips.

Image Credits: gamma0burst

The follow-up to the Xe Alchemist iGPUs will come with Lunar Lake as the Xe2 LPG which will utilize the Battlemage graphics architecture while the Xe3 LPG chips featured on Panther Lake will adopt a brand new Celestial architecture. It looks like Intel has a really good roadmap laid out to utilize their graphics IPs in future Core products. However, some of these products are years away and we have to see how the first generation of Xe GPUs fares against the competition.

Image Credits: gamma0burst

The Xe iGPUs and dGPUs will co-exist and Intel is already hard at work on both Xe Battlemage and Celestial GPUs for high-end users in the form of their next-generation Arc graphics card which the company recently talked about over here.

About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.

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