Hints of an exciting new gaming GPU from Intel were just a social media miscommunication and now I'm totally deflated

Intel has announced new Intel Arc Pro B50 and B60 GPUs at Computex. The latter even serves up a hefty 24 GB of VRAM. Cue much rejoicing? Not for gamers, as these are not graphics cards aimed at games and, deep down, they're not actually new.

So, what is actually going on? Last week we reported on a cryptic posts on X by an official Intel account telling gamers showing interest in a new GPU from Intel to "stay tuned."

Well, there definitely isn't a new gaming GPU at the Computex show and we've been told directly by Intel that the posts on X were a miscommunication by an over-eager social media manager. Bummer.

Anyway, the "new" Intel Arc Pro B50 and B60 GPUs use the same Intel G21 silicon as Intel's existing Arc B570 and B580 gaming GPUs. In other words, this is not the first outing of the rumoured high-performance G31 chip that we've been hoping for.

For AI and other pro workflows, these new cards could be quite compelling, especially the B60 with its 24GB of VRAM (not to mention the funky dual B60 board Jacob spotted at Computex with two G21 GPUs and 48 GB of VRAM). But they're simply not gaming relevant.

As for when we might expect to see a new gaming GPU from Intel, that's hard to say. Reference to an Intel Arc B750 GPU has been spotted on Intel's Japanese website. However, that is unambiguously a typo in the header. The full list of specifications below clearly states "B570" and likewise lists the specs for the B570.

It was all a false alarm, unfortunately.

Long story short, there's no chance Intel is announcing a new gaming GPU at Computex and virtually no chance it will announce one shortly after. At soonest, we might see something around September. But even that is speculative and it could come later.

Indeed, there's no reason to assume that a new G31 GPU based on the current Battlemage generation of Intel graphics technology will ever appear. It may. It quite easily may not.

Current rumours point to a GPU with 32 execution units, well up on the 20 EUs of the Arc B580, and performance that might just be on par with an Nvidia RTX 5070. But there has also been talk that Intel can't get the chip working well enough.

That narrative centres on the high CPU overhead of the B570 and B580 GPUs. If that's proportionally higher with the mooted G31 GPU, in line with the increased EU count, that could make G31 unworkable in the real world unless paired with a very high-end CPU. And that doesn't make sense for a GPU that would slot into the mid-range.

All of which means there's nothing exciting to report about Intel's gaming graphics for now. We remain hopeful. But definitely not even remotely expectant.