So we all know that chip stock Intel (INTC) has had a rough year of things, but there are some signs it is making a comeback. Indeed, one of the biggest signs of this comeback was the launch of its Battlemage graphics card line. And a new report from Techradar suggests that it is a surprising winner in the budget GPU market as a result. The news was good enough to get Intel an extra 2% in its share price in Wednesday’s trading as a result.
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The report noted that, thanks to the B570 graphics processing unit (GPU), Intel is “…on its way to becoming the new budget GPU king.” As it turns out, early tests on the B570 suggest that it is only 12% slower than its bigger brother, the B580. And while this is not a particularly big difference in capability, it also makes a shocking sort of sense: the B570 is around 12% less expensive as well.
Sheer perfection of you-get-what-you-pay-for aside, Intel still has a bit of an uphill battle to face in terms of dealing with rivals AMD (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA). Mainly, Intel’s processors, the report noted, are somewhat behind its rivals in terms of power. But if Intel can keep producing what it is at the price point that it is, it may have the budget market well in hand.
Intel’s Steamy Future
Meanwhile, Forbes brought out a report detailing Intel’s future with Steam, and in particular, SteamOS. SteamOS already runs nicely on mobile devices like the Steam Deck, and since the Steam Deck boasts a custom AMD processor, that might make some concerned about Intel’s gaming future.
The bad news is that SteamOS looks to stay mostly on handheld devices like the Steam Deck, among others, for the near-term. There were no details about time frames for the SteamOS beta release, though a public release is expected before May 2025. A SteamOS beta on the MSI Claw 8 AI+, which boasts Intel’s Lunar Lake chips, is not likely to happen. Though in a plus for Intel, it will also likely not happen for RTX-driven desktops from Nvidia either.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 21 Holds and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 57.76% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $24.48 per share implies 24.74% upside potential.
