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Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics

Intel Xe MAX

The Intel Iris Xe MAX (DG1 Low Power - LP or iDG1LPDEV) is a dedicated PCIe 4.0 mobile entry-level graphics card with 96 execution units (EUs) based on the Gen 12 architecture. Compared to the integrated Intel Iris Xe in the Tiger Lake CPUs, the Xe MAX offers 4 GB dedicated LPDDR4x graphics memory (68 GB/s versus 56 GB/s for the MX350) and higher clock speeds of 1.65 GHz (vs. 1.35 GHz). Both support DP4A DLBoost instructions to speed up AI tasks and two media engines (including AV1 decoding in hardware). Currently the GPU is only available for Tiger Lake based laptops and offers some possibilities to use the iGPU and dGPU together (using the Deep Link software framework). The GPU uses hybrid graphics to turn off the Xe MAX when not in used (display ports are routed through the iGPU, but the Xe MAX features four dedicated display ports in comparison the the Nvidia GeForce MX350).

Furthermore, Intel supports to shift TDP between the two chips for better CPU performance or balancing graphics workloads.

The gaming performance is on average slightly better than a fast Intel Iris Xe iGPU with plenty of TDP and cooling headroom. There are even some games where the iGPU is faster thanks to Deep Link and sharing power and cooling. Intel targets 1080p gaming with low to medium settings with the GPU and provided examples where the MAX is on par or better than a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX350. 

According to Intel, the GPU is mostly aimed at content creators that can make use of the additional compute units, AI (DP4a) acceleration or media encoders.

As the Iris Xe Graphics, the Xe MAX supports Variable Rate Shading, Adaptive Sync, Async Compute, DirectX 12.1, OpenGL 4.6 and OpenCL 2.

As the Tiger Lake CPUs, the Iris Xe MAX dGPU is manufactured in the modern 10nm SuperFin process at Intel. Intel aims the Max-GPU for laptops with a combined power budget of 35 Watt and up. The power consumption of the GPU alone is specified similar to the 25W of the GeForce MX350 (we guess including the graphics memory).

ManufacturerIntel
CodenameiDG1LPDEV
ArchitectureGen. 12 Xe
Pipelines96 - unified
Core Speed1650 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed4266 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeLPDDR4x
Max. Amount of Memory4 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12.1
technology10 nm
Date of Announcement31.10.2020

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
17.3 pt (18%)
AMD Radeon HD 8180 -92%
...
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000) -10%
NVIDIA Quadro P620 -9%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M SLI -9%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 (Desktop) -8%
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M SLI -8%
NVIDIA Quadro K5000M -6%
NVIDIA Quadro M620 -6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M -3%
AMD Radeon R9 M290X -3%
Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 1%
AMD Radeon HD 7970M 1%
AMD Radeon HD 6870 1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q 5%
NVIDIA Quadro K5100M 7%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M 10%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 12%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile 14%
...
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (Desktop) 459%
0%
100%
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy Score
min: 1825     avg: 1859     median: 1853 (10%)     max: 1899 Points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy Graphics
min: 1697     avg: 1720     median: 1720 (9%)     max: 1743 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics
min: 82964     avg: 177443     median: 177442 (28%)     max: 271921 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme Graphics
64040 Points (9%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Score
min: 18711     avg: 18983     median: 18982.5 (25%)     max: 19254 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
min: 34947     avg: 35970     median: 35970 (18%)     max: 36993 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 5412     avg: 5866     median: 5577 (14%)     max: 6610 Points
+ 3 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
min: 6111     avg: 6222     median: 6222 (13%)     max: 6333 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Graphics
115123 Points (15%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 7720     avg: 7872     median: 7872 (20%)     max: 8024 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 7804     avg: 8009     median: 8009 (14%)     max: 8214 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Valley 1.0 - Unigine Valley 1.0 DX
18.8 fps (10%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
SPECviewperf 12
specvp12 sw-03 +
specvp12 snx-02 +
specvp12 showcase-01 +
specvp12 mediacal-01 +
specvp12 maya-04 +
specvp12 energy-01 +
specvp12 creo-01 +
specvp12 catia-04 +
SPECviewperf 13 specvp13 sw-04 +
specvp13 snx-03 +
specvp13 showcase-02 +
specvp13 medical-02 +
specvp13 maya-05 +
specvp13 energy-02 +
specvp13 creo-02 +
specvp13 catia-05 +
specvp13 3dsmax-06 +
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 +
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - LuxMark v2.0 Room GPU
1161 Samples/s (12%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - LuxMark v2.0 Sala GPU
3073 Samples/s (11%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - ComputeMark v2.1 Result
3898 points (8%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Power Consumption - Furmark Stress Test Power Consumption - external Monitor *
42.9 Watt (8%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Power Consumption - The Witcher 3 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
46.3 Watt (8%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Power Consumption - Witcher 3 Power Consumption *
52.2 Watt (11%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
Clock Speed - GPU Clock Speed Furmark
1200 MHz (61%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- 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.

Strange Brigade

Strange Brigade

2018
low 1280x720
87.4 fps  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
39.1 fps  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
33 fps  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
28.5 fps