New code unearthed in Intel's Arc graphics driver files could point to the company's plans to launch its own answer to Nvidia's multi-frame generation tech. Multi-frame generation, or MFG for short, debuted in Nvidia's keynote last year as part of its pitch for the RTX 50 series. Ada Lovelace could already do regular frame gen — inserting an AI-generated frame between two real ones — but Blackwell took it one step further — using up to three interpolated frames created from an actually rendered one. So far, neither Intel nor AMD has an answer to this, though that appears to be changing soon, according to the r/IntelArc subreddit.
Scouring through the latest Arc drivers, user u/Organic-Bird-587 stumbled upon a mention of "Multi-Frame Generation (XeSS)" in the files. That was accompanied by an image that could potentially be the new logo for Intel's MFG, suggesting that the chipmaker might be working on its own multi-frame generation tech set to debut soon. Despite Arc facing fresh scrutiny following the recent Nvidia-Intel deal, the company is still believed to be working on Battlemage — its current-gen discrete GPU architecture — and states it remains committed to its Arc graphics project, which could include its fabled B770 card.
Driver Built XeSS Frame Generation Might be on the way. from r/IntelArc
Pairing up the B770 launch with MFG could be a huge win for Intel, netting them an answer to Nvidia's multi-frame tech. AMD currently offers no MFG solution of its own, so this could be the moment to establish a unique selling point for Arc versus AMD graphics cards. Still, it's important to note that this is purely speculative, and finding trinkets of unreleased or unannounced products is commonplace in driver code — until there's confirmation from Intel, take this with a huge grain of salt, although it would make sense given the current landscape.
Nvidia's historic $5 billion investment into Intel last week seemed to put the company's Arc graphics lineup in jeopardy, especially after the announcement that would see Intel create new chips featuring GPU chiplets from Nvidia. Intel later clarified that Arc will remain in development and that RTX GPUs are "complementary" — a stance that lines up with this news, as MFG is purely Nvidia's play at the moment, so offering a competitor to that almost reinforces hope that Arc is still on the battlefront, fighting to carve out its own space in a crowded market.
It's important to keep in mind that multi-frame generation is not a revolutionary concept and has its critics. Notably, Borderlands 4's rocky launch and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford's insistence that users rely on the tech to make the resource-hungry title playable haven't gone down well with fans.
MFG requires a decent baseline framerate to build upon, and it introduces latency in the process. There's also a third-party solution, called Lossless Scaling, that is rising in popularity, promising up to 20x frame generation. It costs $7 but works with most GPUs. Just like XeSS works with every GPU (supporting Shader Model 6.4) after its recent update, if Intel is really working on XeSS MFG as we speak, it has the potential to democratize frame generation and make it as accessible as tweaking a DLL.
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