Intel Prepares Xe3 Celestial GPUs for Trial Production

Intel is making steady progress in the development of its graphics accelerators. According to recent reports, the Xe3 Celestial architecture — set to power future Arc GPUs — has moved into preliminary testing. This phase allows engineers and partners to evaluate GPU performance via cloud platforms, speeding up the identification and resolution of potential issues.

Sources indicate that Intel is currently using programmable chips (FPGAs) to emulate the behavior of Celestial GPUs. This approach gives hardware manufacturers and software developers a head start in optimizing their products for the upcoming architecture — well before production-ready silicon becomes available. Current efforts are focused on fine-tuning power consumption and clock speeds across a range of workloads, from idle to maximum performance. Insider reports suggest the testing spans all use cases, including mobile devices and discrete desktop GPUs.

If pre-validation goes smoothly, Intel could begin producing trial batches of Xe3 chips in the coming months. However, mass production isn't expected to begin before the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, Intel is also preparing to launch the Arc Battlemage B770 graphics card. According to the company’s Asian partners, it could be officially unveiled during Computex 2025 at the end of May. Reports say the BMG-G31 chips powering the B770 have already arrived at Intel’s facility in Vietnam.

The B770 is expected to target the mid-range market, competing with AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5060. Intel has already released the B570 and B580 models, which were well-received for their price-to-performance ratio. The upcoming B770 looks to be the next step in Intel’s push to strengthen its position in the discrete GPU segment.

As of now, Intel hasn’t shared a firm release date for the new products, stating that final timing will depend on testing outcomes and broader market conditions.