Intel has shared some insight into the gaming performance of the upcoming Meteor Lake systems. A pre-production system was put through its paces running Dying Light 2 on the Meteor Lake Xe-LPG iGPU with visibly smooth gameplay at 1080p native, and from 1.6 to 1.8x faster performance when using XeSS upscaling tech.
Intel Tech Evangelist, Alejandro Hoyos got Intel Senior Technical Marketing Engineer, Chuck Duvall to explain what the demo was about, and what it showed.
One of the greatest things about Meteor Lake is that new graphics tile that’s inside,” stated Duvall. “It really delivers next-generation performance.” Duvall went on to characterize the gaming experience as like “a discrete graphics card... integrated right into the processor.”
In the screenshot you can see the side-by-side comparison of Dying Light 2 running on one of the new processors, which we assume will be sold in a laptop and come with Intel Core Ultra branding.
To the left we see the game running at 1080p native on the iGPU. To the right we see the game running at 720p, but using XeSS AI-upscaling to deliver 1080p imagery. Meanwhile, without revealing the actual frames-per-second performance in either case, Intel’s demo shows that XeSS gamers would enjoy a frame rate that is between about 1.6 and 1.8x faster than 1080p native.
In the video, you can also see that Intel shared power consumption figures, which we guess are important for a mobile platform. Consumption is very similar in either gaming scenario, at a little under 30 watts.
The video ends with a disclaimer about performance testing results on pre-production systems “as well as results that have been estimated or simulated using an Intel Reference Platform.” Hopefully, that is a boilerplate statement, rather than an admission that the side-by-side demo was estimated or simulated.
This is the first time Intel has had XeSS officially running on its integrated graphics. At this end of the market tech like XeSS should be the most beneficial, in theory, so perhaps it can make a big difference to people wanting to indulge in some modern AAA gaming on their thin and light portable. Currently, 80+ PC titles have support for XeSS built-in, says Intel.
For a deeper look at Meteor Lake and its integrated Xe LPG GPU (fabricated by TSMC), please click through those respective links. Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake systems should start to hit retail late this year or early next, as the processors are scheduled for launch in mid-December. Earlier today, we heard that Intel has already started to ship Meteor Lake processors to PC makers.
