Intel Arc Celestial discrete GPUs have hit pre-silicon validation and that makes me a little more hopeful for their eventual launch

The discrete version of Intel's upcoming Arc Xe3-based GPU line, Celestial, took a larger step towards full production as pre-silicon validation began. However, so much has changed for Intel as of late that it's not quite a guarantee of the company's commitment to discrete GPUs.

This is all according to a reported LinkedIn post spotted by X account Haze2K1 (via TechPowerUp). In it, the post claims discrete Celestial GPUs have hit pre-silicon validation. This means that, whilst the architecture of the card and the basic hardware have been developed, the silicon chip used in it has not yet been produced.

Intel's Tom Petersen claimed on a podcast back in December 2024 that Xe3, the architecture Celestial is based on, is "pretty much baked". He said that the software team have a lot to work on in regards to Xe3, but the hardware team has mostly moved on to whatever comes after Xe3.

If the pre-silicon phase goes well and testing of the card begins, TechPowerUp suggests this could lead to "volume production by the end of the year or in early 2026".

However, in response to TechPowerUp's post, Haze2K1 clarified their information was "actually from months ago". This leaves the further development of discrete Celestial cards up in the air.

In January, we had the chance to sit down for a roundtable with Jim Johnson, the SVP of Intel's Client Computing Group. In this, he told us he was "confident" about the launch of Celestial, following the recent release of Intel's Battlemage. In this, Jim Johnson said some of the conversation around Celestial internally was about whether it would be discrete or integrated first. Notably, this answer wasn't framed as an either/or, more so a 'which one first'.

Things have changed quite a bit since we spoke to Jim Johnson, though. Lip-Bu Tan took over as Intel CEO in March, and a well-known leaker suggested that the high-end Battlemage card was cancelled. As well as this, Pat Gelsinger, the previous Intel CEO, said that there's "less need for discrete graphics" back in November. Though Gelsinger is not with the company any more, this communication has certainly worried those looking for Intel GPUs, especially as some rather liked the budget Intel Arc B580 card.

Discrete Intel Celestial moving into pre-silicon validation is certainly a good sign for the card but, knowing the information is now months old, Intel may have changed its approach since.

The best graphics cards are more than just raw hardware. Graphics card manufacturers also have to get their software stack fully formed and ready to go. For Intel, this is slightly helped by the efforts to get the current generation Battlemage cards up-and-running. However, there are a lot of software barriers in the way of catching up with both Team Green and Team Red, and we don't yet know if Team Blue is up for the challenge.

Panther Lake, Intel's next lineup of CPUs, is due to launch at the end of the year, and early reports suggest there are gaming performance gains to be had. You'd hope so, after the gaming performance losses of the current generation. The integrated GPU is said to be a Celestial one, so we will see Celestial in some form fairly soon.

For the sake of having better competition in the market to take on the current giants, I certainly hope we get further commitments to the discrete market from Intel, but all eyes are likely on its mobile CPU efforts, where it's trying to combat Apple, Arm, and AMD.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.