Intel is already working on support for its Xe3 GPU architecture in Linux, although Xe3, codenamed Celestial, won't be used in any chips until late 2025 (at the earliest).
In fact, Battlemage, Intel's second-generation Arc graphics, is barely here (on Lunar Lake laptops as an integrated GPU), so it's very early days for third-generation Celestial.
However, as Phoronix reports, Intel engineers are currently laying the groundwork to enable Xe3 in the Linux kernel.
So far, we know nothing about how Xe3, which will be used for the first time as integrated graphics in next year's Panther Lake processors, Lunar Lake's successor on the laptop side, will improve on its predecessor.
The Linux driver code might eventually give us a clue, but it doesn't yet. It is based on existing Xe2 code and focuses on Xe3 LPM (Low Power Mode).
What about the low-key Celestial?
While this is Xe3 for laptops, the prospect of Celestial-based discrete graphics cards seems much further away. After all, as we've already noted, Battlemage discrete GPUs aren't even here yet, just the integrated graphics implementation for Intel's Lunar Lake mobile chips. It may still be a while before we see standalone Battlemage graphics cards for desktop PCs, but expect them to appear relatively early in 2025, with any luck.
Meanwhile, Intel is certainly making progress when it comes to how powerful its integrated graphics are, especially with Lunar Lake, and with Arrow Lake mobile processors also close on the horizon now, and looking pretty slick too.