Fears of the death of Intel Arc GPUs may be exaggerated – despite Nvidia deal, a powerful new graphics card is rumored

• Intel has posted a new job advert on LinkedIn
• It’s for an engineer to work on high-end discrete graphics cards
• Some have worried that the deal Intel struck with Nvidia casts serious doubt on Arc discrete, but this ad hints that a powerful new GPU is on the way

Since the announcement of the major Intel and Nvidia deal, whereby Team Green will provide RTX GPU chiplets for Intel’s SoCs in laptops and handhelds (and more besides), some doubt has been cast over the future of Team Blue’s own graphics solutions.

Intel has clarified that the new Nvidia partnership doesn’t change its existing GPU roadmap, but the more skeptical among us have certainly been concerned about what this might mean for Team Blue’s discrete Arc GPUs in particular, although work is apparently continuing on those products.

VideoCardz reports that leaker Haze on X pointed out a new job advert from Intel on LinkedIn which is for an engineer to focus on “gaming validation and optimization” for desktop GPUs, specifically “high-end” designs focusing on “dGFX” (discrete graphics) gaming performance.

Why would Intel be advertising for someone to work on a high-end desktop GPU if it was about to ditch the whole Arc discrete graphics card range? Presumably, it wouldn’t; though a single job ad obviously doesn’t give us the full picture here.

Still, it’s an optimistic hint that work will continue with Arc graphics cards, and that Intel is ploughing on with its discrete GPU efforts, as well as with third-gen integrated graphics (Xe3, known as Celestial on the desktop).

Analysis: gazing into the GPU crystal ball

What we don’t know is what graphics card this might be. Are there plans for a high-end Celestial GPU? A leaker chiming in on X (RedGamingTech) drops a vague hint that it might be Druid (which is the fourth-gen range for Arc). There have also been rumors about a high-end Battlemage graphics card that still might be inbound. Your guess is as good as mine – for what it’s worth, a Celestial product is what my money’s on here.

In some ways, it doesn’t matter so much what this product actually turns out to be – if there’s a product at all – but the important thing here is that this is a clear hint that Intel isn’t abandoning its desktop graphics cards. Or at least the company isn’t planning to do so yet…

To be clear, Intel hasn’t indicated that it’ll drop desktop GPU development anyway. The company has simply said its existing roadmap remains the same, without specifically clarifying that this means discrete GPUs, which leaves some room for doubt; especially because, frankly, there’s already been some serious doubt about the future of Arc desktop graphics cards.

We’ve seen discrete GPU sales figures suggesting that at this point – two generations into the Arc lineup (Alchemist came first, then Battlemage) – Intel has less than 1% of the market (Nvidia holds a monopoly to the tune of 94%). Which makes me worry that if this does reflect the market relatively accurately, Team Blue may be considering saving a lot of money that’s doubtless being pumped into R&D for the Arc discrete range by simply getting rid of it.

Still, we’ve had clarification from elsewhere, as PC Gamer reports, that the new Nvidia deal is more about the data center than consumer PCs. And, according to YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead’s sources, any impact on the consumer front likely won’t be felt until at least 2028 with Intel’s Titan Lake, which could come with an integrated GPU from Nvidia (possibly in some chips, with others still using integrated Arc graphics).

That said, Moore’s Law is Dead is very down on the prospects for Arc discrete GPUs, calling them effectively dead at this point. And sadly, I can easily envision discrete Arc getting canned (eventually), although this job ad is at least a reason for some optimism.

And if we do see a high-end Battlemage graphics card emerge in the near future – rumors have blown rather hot and cold on this one, but apparently it’s still coming – that will be an even more hopeful sign, particularly if it’s priced well and perhaps starts to carve out more GPU market share for Intel.

I certainly feel that it would be a shame to lose this third horse from the desktop graphics card race. The existing Battlemage (B580 and 570) GPUs have been nicely positioned competitors with a great value proposition.

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