Our friend Michael over at Phoronix spotted today that Intel’s XPU Manager 1.3.5 now includes explicit support for Intel’s “BMG-G31,” marking another software-level confirmation that Intel’s larger “Big Battlemage” die is in active development and driver testing. This sort of entry in an Intel-maintained tooling package is low-noise evidence, because vendors generally don’t add device IDs for hardware that doesn’t exist.
This update joins a steady trickle of corroborating traces in the open-source world. Over recent months Mesa has merged patches to recognize distinct Battlemage IDs and specifically classify a G31/BMG variant, and multiple new PCI device IDs associated with Battlemage have turned up in Linux driver trees. Together these driver-level sightings make a compelling case that Intel is prepping at least one larger Battlemage SKU for desktop or workstation use.
A bigger die is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the spec sheet that’s been condensing from the mists of leaks and rumors would lift Intel into performance brackets it hasn’t consistently hit with prior Arc generations. It would mean stronger 1440p performance potential and more credible competition against Nvidia and AMD in that tier. On the other hand, larger dies cost more per good chip (lower wafer yields) and can be harder to price aggressively without eating margins. It’s the classic manufacturing/competitiveness trade-off.
Assuming the core and memory figures hold and Intel clocks the silicon competitively, BMG-G31-based cards could reasonably aim for 1440p at high settings, and sit near the contemporary GeForce and Radeon midrange (depending on driver maturity). Practical performance will hinge on three things far more than raw hardware, though: final clocks and binning, memory speed/configuration, and the state of Intel’s drivers at launch. Intel’s made swift progress on its Xe2 drivers, going so far as to correct the much-publicized CPU-heavy nature of its software, at least in some titles. It’s not necessarily clear that that progress will fully apply to BMG-G31, though.
It’s possible that the BMG-G31 isn’t targeting gaming applications, too. Earlier this year, Intel debuted the Arc Pro B50 and B60 for AI workstations. Those cards are based on the BMG-G21 die, the same one used in consumer B-series Arc cards. The BMG-G31 could come in a consumer Arc card, an Arc Pro card, or both.
The bottom line is that today’s XPU Manager entry is one more concrete tile in the mosaic that is Intel’s 2026 Arc roadmap. It doesn’t prove clocks, pricing, or final performance, but it does increase the odds that a larger Battlemage SKU (commonly expected to be called the Arc B770 in leaks) is on the way. The biggest question mark around these cards will be the pricing, and those concerns aren’t helped by the state of the memory market right now. It might be tough for Intel to price the new GPU in a way that makes it competitive in the market without throwing away its margins. Hopefully we’ll know more officially sooner than later.
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