Intel teases 32GB Arc GPU: Big Battlemage and Panther Lake

Intel appears to have hinted, perhaps unintentionally, at a new Arc graphics card with 32 GB of memory. The reference surfaced in the user guide for the updated AI Playground v3.0.0, the company’s in-house tool for working with AI that’s tuned for Arc graphics and upcoming Panther Lake processors based on the Xe3 architecture.

Enthusiast Haze2K1 drew attention to the find. The documentation shows an example of image generation performed on an unspecified Arc GPU equipped with 32 GB of VRAM. That detail stands out: in Intel’s current Arc A and Arc B lineups there is no single-GPU model with that capacity. At the moment, the ceiling is 24 GB on the professional Arc Pro B60, while 48 GB is reserved for dual-chip solutions.

This is why many suggest the mention could point to the so-called “Big Battlemage,” Intel’s flagship built on the BMG-G31 chip. Expectations around that GPU include a 256-bit memory bus, which would make both 16 GB and 32 GB variants feasible. It’s plausible that consumer models would settle at 16 GB, while professional versions or special editions could stretch to 32 GB—putting them shoulder to shoulder with top-tier offerings from rivals. On paper, the flagship fits the profile.

There is, however, a more grounded explanation. Intel’s drivers support shared memory allocation, allowing the GPU to tap into system RAM. In theory, this could have been a Panther Lake laptop with a large pool of memory, where 32 GB were apportioned to graphics. Even so, the active support for the BMG-G31 chip in recent software updates suggests Intel is indeed readying a substantial refresh of the Arc family. The breadcrumbs add up.

If the leak traces back to a genuine Big Battlemage sample, an official debut could land in early 2026, likely at CES. With no other major GPU releases planned by Intel in the first half of the year, Battlemage looks set to be the company’s headline graphics play in the near term—a stage that would make strategic sense.