It’s been a consistent refrain even before the “Arc” branding was announced: “Intel is going to exit the GPU market!” For whatever reason, there are certain people who really don’t want Intel to be making GPUs, and anytime there is even the smallest hint of bad news for Intel GPUs, this old line comes up again.
The thing is, Intel’s GPUs are doing better than ever right now. The company can’t keep the excellent Arc B580 in stock, and it’s about to launch the 10GB B570 next week. We haven’t posted our impressions of the B570 yet as it isn’t technically launched, but we were over the moon with the B580 considering its price. It’s not flawless, but it’s very, very good, and if you’re in the market for an entry-level GPU, at this time, there’s not really much else worth considering.
In case you still aren’t convinced, how about Interim Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus telling you that Intel’s discrete GPUs aren’t going anywhere? During the blue team’s CES 2025 keynote, Holthaus specifically said exactly that: “We are very committed to the discrete graphics market, and plan future investments.” Pretty open-and-shut, isn’t it?
It really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that’s paying attention, though. Intel needs graphics IP no matter what, and if the company can make money soldering GPUs to graphics cards, that also benefits its cash cow datacenter market, as it builds out the company’s portfolio that it can offer to enterprise customers. Besides graphics duties, GPU hardware includes video processing blocks that are useful for video streaming services, and AI accelerators are close cousins to GPUs—just ask rival NVIDIA.
In a more practical and direct context, our curiosity is whether Intel will launch new discrete GPUs based on the Xe2 IP. There have been persistent rumors about a larger Battlemage GPU, perhaps named B770 or similar. Such a card could be a compelling offering, but it depends on how well it would compete against not only NVIDIA’s just-announced GeForce RTX 5070 at $549, but also AMD’s forthcoming Radeon RX 9070. Either way, we’re heartened to hear Holthaus confirm Intel’s commitment to dedicated GPUs.