Why TSMC's 4nm silicon will make or break Intel's new Battlemage GPUs

pcgamer.com:

According to a new report from Digitimes, Intel's upcoming Battlemage gaming GPU will be made on TSMC's 4nm silicon (via TechPowerup), also known as N4. That's both a step up on and a natural progression from the 6nm node used for its existing Alchemist GPUs, such as the Intel Arc A770. But could it also be a potential problem?

Both AMD and Nvidia's existing GPUs are already produced on similar TSMC silicon. Okay, AMD's RDNA 3 GPUs, such as the Radeon RX 7800 XT, and Nvidia's Ada Lovelace GPUs, like the RTX 4070, are on TSMC's N5 node. But N5 and N4 are derivations of the same basic node and closely related. 

The next really big step from N5 isn't N4, it's TSMC's N3 nodes, N3B and N3E. Apple has used N3B for a while and is already switching to N3E, while Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake laptop chip uses TSMC N3B. So, N3 silicon is very much live.

Likewise, those AMD and Nvidia N5 GPUs have been out for a while. Indeed, we're gearing up for next-gen GPUs from both companies. But Intel's Battlemage GPUs haven't been released. As things stand, there's no sign of a really imminent launch for Battlemage and at this rate it may not appear until next year.

Now, a production node isn't everything. But it does largely dictate what generation of GPU you're dealing with. It impacts both realistic transistor counts and has a significant impact on clockspeeds.

Put another way, it's not automatically a problem for Intel's Battlemage GPUs to be on the TSMNC N4 node. But could it develop into one depending on the timing of Battlemage's release?

Let's say Battlemage launches early next year. At that point, the N4 process would allow it to compete directly with the aforementioned AMD and Nvidia GPUs in whatever segment Intel has aimed for when it comes to transistor count and therefore be roughly equivalent in terms of things like the number of shaders and render outputs.

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