Intel's rumored 'Celestial' GPUs could finally give Nvidia and AMD cause for concern
We could be seeing a new Xe3P architecture for Intel's rumored next-gen 'Celestial' GPUs
Rumors hint at Intel potentially using an in-house INTC process instead of the usual TSMC
This could lead to stronger competition against AMD and Nvidia as Intel may be making a bigger effort on its GPUs
Intel's recent Battlemage GPUs have been received well by budget PC gamers, with the Arc B580 and Arc B570 providing great performance at 1440p and 1080p respectively - however, it doesn't stop there for Team Blue, as reports suggest it has new tricks up its sleeve for its next-gen 'Celestial' GPUs.
According to Raichu in a post on X that appears to have been removed (reported by VideoCardz), Team Blue's new discrete GPUs known as Arc Celestial will be based on Xe3P architecture rather than Xe3. Raichu also hints at Intel using its INTC in-house process instead of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) who are responsible for helping build chips for multiple tech giants, which is used for most GPUs such as Nvidia's recent RTX 5000 series lineup, as well as Intel's Arc B580 and B570. Moving in-house will give Intel more control over the chips, and it also means they don't have to wait for TSMC to fulfill orders from its many other customers, many of whom are direct competitors to Intel.
A new architecture can bring significant performance improvements and increased power efficiency to next-gen GPUs, like we've seen previously with Nvidia's move from Ada Lovelace (for the RTX 4000 series) to Blackwell (for the RTX 5000 series). New technologies like AI upscaling, data processing, and frame generation become possible, which sounds promising for the rumored Xe3P architecture.
VideoCardz highlighted a LinkedIn profile of an Intel engineer who was revealed to be working on the rumored architecture, further corroborating reports of its development for the Celestial GPUs. It seems as though it's being developed alongside Xe3+ and Xe3 (codenames for architectures developed by Intel) but since this is still just a rumor, take it with a grain of salt.
There's no doubt that Nvidia remains the market leader in graphics cards (despite some ongoing concerns about RTX 5000 series GPUs), but there's a chance its rival AMD could begin to close the gap soon. Intel still has some work to do to get closer to both Team Green and Team Red in terms of competition - and while it's unlikely the purported Celestial GPUs will launch anytime soon since Intel's Battlemage GPUs were released just a few months ago, these rumors are still pretty exciting for anyone who'd like the GPU market to have more competition and choice.
Nvidia's been the GPU market leader for a long, long time now, and while AMD has been trying hard to close the gap with the likes of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX (competing with the RTX 4080 Super), it's not been enough to outperform its rival's products.
Despite this, AMD is the only real 'threat' to Nvidia's GPU throne right now even with its clear focus on midrange graphics cards this generation, and its new Radeon RX 9000 series looks promising considering the negative consensus surrounding Nvidia's generational uplift from the RTX 4000 series (especially with the pricing of the new GPUs).
Intel still has a long journey ahead if it wants to catch up to both since the recent Arc B580 and Arc B570 are considered midrange GPUs. While it's provided a great option for budget PC gamers, it doesn't match up to the popularity of Team Green's GPUs, and that looks set to continue if the hype about the upcoming RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 are anything to go by. Regardless, the only way is up which is great because Team Green needs more competition - as that means (hopefully) more innovation and more competitive prices for us consumers.
We've yet to see what Team Blue can produce when it comes to high-end GPUs, but based on the affordability of its Battlemage offerings, I'm very keen to see what this will mean once it can focus on providing even stronger GPUs for gamers...
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