Yesterday, we reported that Intel might be gearing up to unleash Battlemage early in December - ahead of AMD's RDNA 4 and Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs. Today, a shipping manifest at NBD - highlighted by user josefk972 at X indicates that Team Blue has been dispatching what appears to be GPU boxes for a never-before-seen "BMG B580" card - likely referring to the Arc B580 based on Battlemage.
Per our testing, while a GPU's retail box is probably the least likely thing you'd expect in a pre-launch leak, it does highlight that Intel is hard at work shipping these boxes to OEMs. Battlemage, or Xe2, first debuted with Intel's Lunar Lake chips and stood firm against AMD's Strix Point offerings. The drivers have improved greatly—at least when compared to Alchemist—but a few kinks still need ironing.
It seems this manifest slipped from our eyes as it dates back to September 18. Intel has been sending out packing or retail boxes - measuring around 192mm x 89mm x 381mm for the Arc B580 - a budget offering from the Battlemage lineup. The packaging is relatively small but should be enough to accommodate a compact dual-slot GPU.
We are still unaware of the specifications, although Battlemage is rumored to feature three GPUs: Arc BMG-31, Arc BMG-20, and Arc BMG-G10. The BMG-31 reportedly offers 32 Xe cores, netting us 256 Xe Vector Engines or 4096 ALUs.
Intel will target the budget gaming segment, like AMD, with Xe2 on the desktop to penetrate the mainstream market better. Team Blue needs some serious value and incentives to win the average consumer's trust, such as higher VRAM capacities and competitive pricing. Initial leaks paint a positive picture as a 20-Xe2 core dGPU (Dedicated GPU) beat the 28-Xe core-based Arc A750 in a benchmark recently. RDNA 4 will likely be the more mature architecture as it builds upon RDNA 3.5 - Battlemage's competitor and is poised to make substantial changes in the RT department and AI capabilities.
With more leaks surfacing daily, Battlemage's potential announcement next month seems likely, but we still advise users to take this rumor with a pinch of salt. It makes sense for Intel to capitalize on the holiday season and make hay while the sun shines, but for this to transpire, it must be able to offer Battlemage in volume—at least until RDNA 4 and Blackwell hit shelves.
