Intel updates Mesa driver with four new “Battlemage” GPUs – hints of upcoming Arc graphics cards intensify

While Intel remains conspicuously silent on the future of its dedicated graphics card division, there are the first concrete indications of the company’s next GPU generation in the Linux environment. As can be seen from a recent commit in the Mesa graphics library, Intel has added four new entries with the code name “Battlemage” – a sure sign of preparatory measures to support upcoming Arc graphics solutions.

Four new device identifiers with “BMG” prefix have emerged

The affected device IDs are 0xE220 to 0xE223 and appeared in a patch by Lasse Kärkkäinen, a well-known open source observer who frequently tracks down new hardware in the Linux driver environment at an early stage. All four IDs have the prefix “BMG” – an abbreviation for “Battlemage”, the second generation of Intel’s discrete GPUs (Xe2 architecture). Unlike previous leaks, however, this time there are no more specific designations such as “BMG-G21”, which may indicate a still early development phase or simply a discreet approach. As Intel last released two dedicated Battlemage GPUs in the fourth quarter of 2024 with the Arc B570 and B580 models, it remains unclear whether the newly surfaced entries are successors or extended variants of the existing series. In any case, no new dGPU chip has been officially announced to date.

@GawroskiT @Haze2K1 @x86deadandback Three more Battlemage SKUs is being added to Mesa. Very interesting. These three are all "BMG" instead of "BMG-G21". https://t.co/3x87CWJqFx pic.twitter.com/90U2TKnqwl

— Lasse Kärkkäinen (@LasseKrkkinen) May 27, 2025

Assumptions about the new SKUs: Arc Pro & Gaming?

A classification of the IDs found suggests that at least two of the four models could belong to the Arc Pro GPUs shown at Computex 2025 – specifically the B60 and the B50, two graphics units that, according to initial impressions, are aimed at professional application scenarios and less at game optimization. This means that two of the four new entries would presumably fall into the workstation segment. There is room for speculation for the remaining two IDs: It is currently considered likely that Intel is already laying the foundation for the long-awaited Arc B770 model. Although this has not yet been officially presented, there was an indication at Computex that the release could be expected towards the end of 2025 – for example at the “Intel Innovation” in-house exhibition.

Change of strategy or stopgap solution?

Intel’s silence on the actual roadmap for the Arc series is striking. While AMD and NVIDIA regularly update and visibly position their consumer and high-end lines, Intel is still acting cautiously and opaquely in the dGPU market. This may be partly due to strategic restraint, but possibly also to internal delays in production or architecture development. Rumors about the discontinuation of the high-end GPU “BMG-G31” (presumably the flagship of the new series) support the theory that Intel is focusing more on the mainstream market and professional niches in this generation than on a direct attack on the upper class of GeForce and Radeon.

Market environment: The competition never sleeps

The timing of the next GPU release is likely to be decisive. The mid-range sector is currently particularly competitive: AMD’s RDNA3 refresh is imminent, while NVIDIA is already addressing the first market segments with the GeForce RTX 5000 series. Intel must therefore not only be technically competitive, but also attractively priced – a challenge, especially as its own software ecosystem is still considered a construction site. Although the driver situation has improved noticeably since the bumpy early days of the Arc series, confidence in Intel’s long-term dGPU strategy is not yet fully established on the market. Stable drivers and long-term support are therefore likely to carry more weight than raw performance alone, especially among Linux users – who are traditionally rather cautious when it comes to new hardware platforms.

New hints, but no clear line

The integration of new Battlemage GPUs into the Mesa drivers shows that Intel is continuing to work on its dGPU strategy. However, it remains to be seen whether this will result in a powerful lineup for gamers and workstation users or is merely another cautious step in a long-term plan. The next few months – especially the fourth quarter – are likely to be decisive in determining whether Intel can assert itself in the dGPU market or whether the Arc series will remain a marginal note in the GPU business.

Until then, it’s a case of: Wait for concrete announcements. And hope that the listings in Mesa don’t just remain placeholders.

Source: LasseKrkkinen via X