Intel brings Big Battlemage to market with Arc Pro B70 & B65 graphic cards

HARDWARE NEWS manhkbrady - 3 hours ago

It feels like Intel’s “Big Battlemage” GPU has been a long time coming, but it looks like the wait may finally be over. That said, recent rumors suggest the catch is that this isn’t a traditional Arc gaming GPU. Instead, it’s an AI-focused workstation card. The Intel Arc Pro B70 is expected to feature 32GB of GDDR6 memory and 608 GB/s of bandwidth.

The reference model is rumored to launch with a $949 MSRP, with custom versions from partners like ASRock, Gunnir, Maxsun, and Sparkle expected to follow. Compared to the Arc Pro B60, the B70 reportedly offers 50% more memory and a 60% increase in Xe cores, bringing the total to 32. As a result, AI performance across various workloads is said to improve by as much as 60%.

In terms of positioning, Intel appears to be targeting NVIDIA’s higher-priced RTX Pro 4000. In single-GPU setups, the B70 is claimed to deliver up to twice the “tokens per dollar” on Linux, backed by 367 TOPS of AI performance. Alongside it, Intel has also introduced the Arc Pro B65, which is essentially a B60 variant upgraded with 32GB of VRAM instead of 24GB.

Intel Arc Pro B-Series comparison table showing B50, B60, B65, and B70 specs like Xe cores, memory, and performance.

Pricing for the Arc Pro B65 hasn’t been confirmed yet, though Intel says it should arrive around mid-April. Anil Nanduri, Intel’s VP of AI Products and GTM, noted that the Arc Pro lineup has shifted from primarily supporting creative workloads to enabling large-scale AI development, with the B70 and B65 aiming to deliver strong performance at competitive value.

As for the “Big Battlemage” name, the Arc Pro B70 fits the bill by fully utilizing the architecture, featuring 32 Xe cores, 256 XMX engines, 32 ray tracing units, and a power range between 160W and 290W. While some may have hoped for a consumer-focused version with around 16GB of VRAM to compete in the mid-range gaming market, rising memory costs make Intel’s AI-focused direction easier to understand.

At this point, Intel hasn’t shared any plans for gaming variants of these GPUs. For now, “Big Battlemage” appears to be dedicated entirely to AI and creator workloads, with no indication that a consumer gaming version of the Arc Pro B70 is on the horizon.

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Intel unveils Arc Pro B70 and B65 GPUs aimed at AI and pro workloads

manhkbrady