Intel has more or less confirmed that its third generation Arc Celestial GPUs are very much on the way, the relevant chips now in their pre-silicon validation phase.
Despite the rumours that Intel was planning on killing off its Arc GPUs after Battlemage, a new leak by Haze on X serves as proof that the third generation Celestial is still on the way and, according to Intel Fellow Tom “TAP” Petersen back in December, the chipmaker’s GPU team has already moved on from Xe3 to Xe4, also known as Druid.
They cooking Intel Arc Celestial 🧑🏻🍳 #IntelArc pic.twitter.com/A7s219tM1u
— Haze (@Haze2K1) May 2, 2025
The tweet is a screenshot taken from a LinkedIn page of a current Intel employee, in which they listed down their tasks and achievements surrounding Celestial. One of the simply reads “Developed low-level system software and device drivers in C++ for Intel’s Nova Lake and Xeon6 (Diamond Rapids) CPUs, as well as the Celestial discrete GPU.”
As to which class of gamers Celestial will cater to remains in the fog of war. Originally, the current Xe2 Battlemage was touted to be the generation in which Intel would take on the likes of NVIDIA and AMD in the Enthusiast class. That claim has fallen flat on its face, after Intel shifted the GPU generation’s priorities towards the mid-range and entry-level class market. Celestial is supposed to be the segment for Ultra Enthusiasts but at this stage, we’ll just have to adopt a “wait and see” stance.
(Source: X, Videocardz)
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