After months of rumors and hearsay, Intel appears ready to launch the first of its “Big Battlemage” graphics cards. Barely three months after this year’s ghostly CES, when industry insiders repeatedly claimed the public would see multiple consumer-grade graphics cards unveiled, it looks as if Intel is moving forward with a product aimed at professional workloads first. According to an exclusive by VideoCardz, Intel will launch its Arc Pro B70 and B65 workstation cards next week, on March 25.
“We can now confirm that intel has finally set a date for the launch of its bmg-g31 gpu cards.”
– VideoCardz
As reiterated in the report, these are not gaming cards, which means the mythical Arc B770 is still a no-show. However, those interested in giving these Arc Pro GPUs a test run at gaming can still do so since they share the same drivers. The Arc Pro B70 is said to feature 32 Xe cores, 32 GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with a TDP between 160-290 Watts. The Arc Pro B65 is nearly identical to its consumer counterpart, Arc B60, with BMG-G21 featuring 20 Xe cores and a max 200 Watt TDP, but its 24 GB GDDR6 is on a faster 256-bit bus vs 192-bit of the Arc B60.
Given that there is a noticeable performance gap between the Arc Pro B70 and Arc Pro B65/Arc B60, the question remains if Intel still plans to launch the Arc B770. While the rumor mill has largely been silent on this front since CES, it was once claimed that much of the development work had been completed for the Arc B770. There’s also no denying that the mid-tier gaming GPU market segment is ripe for competition, with neither AMD nor NVIDIA having released any new products thus far since 2026 began. However, one theory is that Intel would prefer a safer sales target with OEMs for the Arc Pro series than risk lackluster consumer sales if product prices are too high due to the ongoing DRAM/NAND shortage. NVIDIA has also been rumored to be exploring various strategies for its GPU memory supply and which products it will offer in the consumer market.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →Wow even Intel is abandoning the consumer market. I mean im not surprised... its exactly what I expected.
Sad but true. I hope we're wrong but I feel the same and multiple market analysts are now saying the AI boom might not end until 2028-2030 which bodes ill for consumer GPUs. I'm sure something will be released by NV/AMD before the market stabilizes but will it be competitive to what we have now and will it be priced so high as to not even matter? Also, will Intel's consumer dGPU division even last long enough to launch another product in the meantime?
Honestly what I see shaped by the market is a move away from DIY systems almost completely, Only those willing to spend inordinate sums of money will be able to afford/build a system themselves. Desktops from SI's will be workstations that could also game. Corporate budgets will be needed to buy them and their AI feeding processing capabilities.
People will go more and more to tablets or portable devices with SOC's.
And I feel this is where Apple could totally step in with their market dominance and purchasing power and just take over the gaming laptop/non work laptop market. Partner with Steam, work with their OS/Gaming integration teams to get the compatibility later right. And sell a metric F ton of laptops and mac Mini Pro's as the best home use/gaming device out there.
Then they could sell it with Apple financing.. Get your top end mac... 4k, just bi monthly payments of xx dollars for 3 years. Or subscribe to our system refresh cycle for XXX dollars a month and get a new system every 3 years with all of the current tech. Apple iCloud included.
OR... you can get a top of the line system for free... but for x hours each evening you have to let the AI run from your system. And pay the power bill.
LOL ... Apple. They literally put out nothing competitive in the gaming market. Their CPU's are not designed for it. We'd all be going back to 1080p/60 gaming on $5000 Apple garbage. They're a decade away from competing with any top tier dGPU.
They dont need to be top of the line.
For the Apple unbelievers, and folks that are just flat out in denial, I'll just throw this out there:
From Wikipedia - List of Largest Video Game companies
So, a lot of companies making a lot of money, for sure.
Apple would be top of the list though, if you considered them a publisher:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/25/app-store-gaming-revenue-hit-52-5b-in-2025-topping-google-play-and-steam-combined-report/[/URL]
Folks that keep saying Apple is irrelevent, and that their hardware isn't competitive... Well. They own the ~largest~ gaming market in the world, by revenue, and by far. You can keep thinking that PCMR gaming is all the matters, and it very well may be all that matters ~to you~, but world-wide, Mobile gaming surpassed PC and console a long time ago, and Apple is king of the mountain there.
To put this in perspective - just by taking that 30% cut - Apple alone pulled in more money than ~the entire~ PC Gaming Market - all publishers and developers added together.
From https://gameworldobserver.com/2025/12/23/the-gaming-industry-in-2025-by-the-numbers-an-overview-from-gamesindustry
Well that's an extremely depressing thought.