Desperate for a cheap GPU? AMD’s RX 7400 just arrived – but I’d forget about that, and start hoping the rumored Intel B380 is real | usagoldmines.com

• AMD has a new RX 7400 GPU out
• It’s for PC makers only at the moment, though – and it’s likely to stay that way
• However, a low-end Battlemage GPU from Intel could be in the works

AMD has quietly released a new low-end desktop graphics card, but it’s not likely to be the solution to your budget GPU needs – at least not yet – although we’ve caught a hint that maybe Intel might have such a GPU in the wings.

First up, the AMD news, which is the official launch of a Radeon RX 7400 graphics card – and yes, while that’s a new GPU, it’s from the previous RDNA 3 generation, rather than RDNA 4, which are the cutting-edge RX 9000 desktop models.

The RX 7400 has 28 Compute Units (CUs), so it’s equipped with 1,792 Stream Processors (cores), along with 8GB of GDDR6 video memory and a low power usage of 43W.

AMD describes this GPU as aimed at “advanced gaming and streaming experiences at 1080p” meaning that it’s for Full HD gaming. Ignore the mention of ‘advanced’, which is marketing blurb, with the listed specs indicating that this is a relatively modest low-end GPU – but there’s a bigger catch here.

As Notebookcheck, which spotted the release of the RX 7400, points out, this GPU has only been seen in a couple of Dell PCs so far. AMD hasn’t confirmed whether it will go on sale as a standalone product, but the smart money is on this being a graphics card that’s sold to OEMs only (this is what previous buzz from the rumor mill has suggested).

In other words, it’ll only be available to system makers like Dell – so you won’t be able to buy an RX 7400 off the shelf, and the only way it’s likely to come to market at all is in prebuilt machines (or being sold second-hand, perhaps).

If that’s disappointing, then the second nugget of news, concerning a possible Intel GPU at the budget end of the spectrum is more positive – although bear in mind that this is just speculation.

VideoCardz picked up a post from Lasse Kärkkäinen on X which mentions a new Battlemage GPU ID that Intel has added to the Mesa 3D Graphics Library (in Linux).

As you can see, the theory is that this might be an Intel Arc Battlemage consumer variant with 16 Xe cores, which would logically be the B380 to sit underneath the existing B580 (and B570).

Analysis: fresh budget GPU hope?

As a budget GPU, the B380 would be a considerable leap from the A380 – the latter has 8 Xe cores, so the Battlemage successor would be doubling that up. It would, in theory, be paired with 8GB of VRAM (slightly beefier than the 6GB found on the A380).

Overall, then, it would be a very useful upgrade – especially as this would be a truly budget graphics card. Remember that the A380 launched at just $150 in the US, and so I’d expect the B380 to certainly come in under $200 – a price bracket which desperately needs more attention, frankly.

After all, supplies of AMD’s own RX 6600 – which has long been recommended as one of the top choices at this end of the spectrum – appear to be drying up (and it’s not quite so cheap anymore as a result).

Sadly, I’d bet that the RX 7400 won’t appear outside of prebuilt PCs, as noted (and previously rumored). And even if it does, AMD might decide to pin a price tag on the GPU which isn’t sub-$200; so value-wise, it may not be much more appealing than the RX 6600 in its current form.

That said, on the off-chance of the RX 7400 eventually becoming available as a standalone GPU, it could be an attractive option for small PC builds (with that frugal power usage).

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