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English => News => Topic started by: Redaktion on March 22, 2026, 05:58:41

Title: Intel Arc B70 Pro and B65 Pro leak reveals ‘Big Battlemage’ workstation GPUs with 32GB ECC GDDR6 ahead of March 25 launch
Post by: Redaktion on March 22, 2026, 05:58:41
A leak points to Intel launching the Arc B70 Pro and B65 Pro "Big Battlemage" workstation GPUs on March 25, 2025, with press materials outlining creator- and AI-focused specs rather than gaming positioning. Both cards reportedly ship with 32GB ECC GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, with the B70 Pro offering 32 Xe2 cores at 160–290W (about 230W reference) and the B65 Pro using 20 Xe2 cores up to 200W, while pricing and availability remain unconfirmed.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Arc-B70-Pro-and-B65-Pro-leak-reveals-Big-Battlemage-workstation-GPUs-with-32GB-ECC-GDDR6-ahead-of-March-25-launch.1255421.0.html
Title: Re: Intel Arc B70 Pro and B65 Pro leak reveals ‘Big Battlemage’ workstation GPUs with 32GB ECC GDDR6
Post by: nah on March 22, 2026, 10:49:32
Why not use GDDR7, which offers 3 GB per chip density, then this GPU could have:
256-bit/32-bit per chip = 8 chips, 8 chips * 3 GB per chip = 24 GB VRAM, 24 GB VRAM * 2 (chips on both sides of the PCB) = 48 GB VRAM and the memory bandwidth would also be 30% higher, because it's GDDR7 and not GDDR6.
Alternative calculation: 32 GB VRAM * 1.5 (3 GB per chip, instead of the current 2 GB) = 48 GB VRAM.
Frankly, when it comes to AI/LLMs, I'm not interested in 32 GB VRAM GPUs..and I said this over 1 year ago.
Let's see if NVIDIA gives us consumer 48 GB VRAM GPUs in the RTX 60 series (probably not, but NVIDIA gave us RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU with 96 GB VRAM, which I also didn't expect).
Title: Re: Intel Arc B70 Pro and B65 Pro leak reveals ‘Big Battlemage’ workstation GPUs with 32GB ECC GDDR6
Post by: JamEl on March 23, 2026, 08:53:11
QuoteThe ECC memory is essential here, as a single bit flip could ruin a long render or an AI training run.
This GPU is not capable to train a LLM big enough where ECC would matter (even with several and days run, it is unlikely that something would happen). Neither is ECC necessary for fine-tuning with this GPU. Also, there are checkpoints, one doesn't lose everything, and even if, on this GPU the costs of losing a run are a few bucks a few days..in this ballpark. How I know? I asked the big LLMs over at arena.ai (aka lmarena.ai).

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_RTX_50_series#Desktop, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Arc#Workstation_2)
So a consumer 5090 has a 3 times faster memory bandwidth and CUDA, of course. The only thing these B70/B65 could have go for them is having 48 GB VRAM and people trying to make them work without CUDA.

For inferencing these are probably fine (I know NV works using Vulkan just fine (a bit slower than using CUDA)), but then again, a 5090 has 3x the token generation and also much higher prompt processing.
Title: Re: Intel Arc B70 Pro and B65 Pro leak reveals ‘Big Battlemage’ workstation GPUs with 32GB ECC GDDR6
Post by: Yokomohoyo on March 24, 2026, 21:17:38
5090s are going for almost $3500 USD. Unless this card costs $1200+  I don't see how this is even a comparison in your head.