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Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4 (Ice Lake 48 EU)

Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4 (Ice Lake 48 EU)

The Intel Iris Plus Graphics G4(Ice Lake with 48 EUs) is an integrated graphics card in the Ice Lake SoCs (10th generation core 10xxG4) for laptops. It offers no dedicated graphics memory (no eDRAM cache like the Intel Iris Graphics 655 predecessor of the Coffee Lake SoCs). It offers 48 of the 64 EUs (Execution Units / Shader Blocks) of the Ice Lake chip and the clock rate depends on the processor model. At launch it looks like all models have a 300 MHz base clock and only differ in the boost clock (1050 - 1100 MHz). Another difference is the TDP as it can be configured from 12 - 25 Watt in the 15 Watt U-models and maybe even higher in the 25 Watt models that will come later.

The performance was not yet communicated, but due to the 25% less cores and similar clock speeds the performance should be clearly lower than the full Iris Plus G7 models. Although, the Ice Lake G4 graphics does not feature any dedicated graphics memory it should perform better than the old Iris Plus 655 with 128 MB eDRAM. Compared to AMDs offering, we suspect the performance should be similar to an AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU. Therefore, the gaming performance should be only sufficient for low demanding games like Rocket League or Overwatch.

A special new feature of the Gen11 graphics card is the new Variable Rate Shading (VRS) support. With it game designers can decide where to spend shading time and e.g. shade object in the background or behind fog with less resolution (up to using only one source for a 4x4 block). With this technique early results show up to 1.3x performance in Unreal Engine POC and 1.2x speedup in Civ 6. Up to now VRS is only supported by the new Nvidia Turing architecture (GTX 1650 and up).

Another improved hardware piece is the integrated video de- and encoder that was improved significantly according to Intel. They did not specify any more details, but the previous generation was able to decode VP9 and H.265/HEVC in Main10 profile with 10 bit color depth using the dedicated hardware.

The Iris Plus G4 supports three display pipes that can each output 5K60 signals (via DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 or HDMI 2.0b). Combining two pipes, the chip is capable to output 8k content.

The Ice Lake SoCs and therefore the integrated GPU are manufactured in the modern 10nm+ process at Intel that should be comparable to the 7nm process of TSMC.

Gen. 11 Series

Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU) compare 64 @ 0.3 - 1.1 GHz
Iris Plus Graphics G4 (Ice Lake 48 EU) 48 @ 0.3 - 1.1 GHz
UHD Graphics G1 (Ice Lake 32 EU) compare 32 @ 0.3 - 1.1 GHz
UHD Graphics G7 (Lakefield GT2 64 EU) compare 64 @ 0.2 - 0.5 GHz
UHD Graphics G4 (Lakefield GT1 48 EU) compare 48 @ 0.2 - 0.5 GHz
UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 32 EU) compare 32 @ 0.35 - 0.9 GHz
UHD Graphics (Elkhart Lake 32 EU) compare 32 @ 0.4 - 0.85 GHz
UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 24 EU) compare 24 @ 0.35 - 0.8 GHz
UHD Graphics (Elkhart Lake 16 EU) compare 16 @ 0.25 - 0.85 GHz
UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 16 EU) compare 24 @ 0.35 - 0.8 GHz
CodenameIce Lake G4 Gen. 11
ArchitectureGen. 11 Ice Lake
Pipelines48 - unified
Core Speed300 - 1100 (Boost) MHz
Memory TypeDDR4
Shared Memoryyes
APIDirectX 12_1, OpenGL 4.5
Power Consumption12-25 Watt
technology10 nm
FeaturesQuickSync
Date of Announcement28.05.2019
CPU in Iris Plus Graphics G4 (Ice Lake 48 EU)GPU Base SpeedGPU Boost / Turbo
Intel Core i5-1035G44 x 1100 MHz, 15 W300 MHz1050 MHz
Intel Core i5-1030G44 x 700 MHz, 9 W300 MHz1050 MHz
Intel Core i3-1000NG42 x 1100 MHz, 9 W300 MHz900 MHz
Intel Core i3-1000G42 x 1100 MHz, 9 W300 MHz900 MHz
min. - max.300 MHz900 - 1050 MHz

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
5.5 pt (6%)
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics
min: 50243     avg: 82914     median: 82913.5 (10%)     max: 115584 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
min: 14903     avg: 14910     median: 14910 (4%)     max: 14917 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 839     avg: 1793     median: 1988 (1%)     max: 2071 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 1980     avg: 3160     median: 3461 (5%)     max: 3544 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 1941     avg: 2965     median: 3225 (3%)     max: 3334 Points
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06
min: 6413     avg: 10836     median: 13031 (18%)     max: 13065 Points
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit
min: 97.8     avg: 98.1     median: 97.8 (98%)     max: 99.3 %
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 +
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 +
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

low 1280x720
26.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
11.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
36.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
19  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
15.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
med. 1920x1080
10  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
8.9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
low 1280x720
20.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
10  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
GRID 2019

GRID 2019

2019
low 1280x720
36.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
17.1  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
15.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
9.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1280x720
10  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
9  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
FIFA 20

FIFA 20

2019
low 1280x720
69.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
43.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
39.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
30.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
low 1280x720
25.3 25.5 ~ 25 fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
8.3 10.5 ~ 9 fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
5.1 7.3 ~ 6 fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
3.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Control

Control

2019
low 1280x720
22.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
7.6  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
F1 2019

F1 2019

2019
low 1280x720
50  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
22  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
19  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
14  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
low 1280x720
43.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
13.8  fps    + Compare