Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU) vs Intel UHD Graphics 24EUs (Alder Lake-N) vs Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs

The Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake with 64 EUs) is an integrated graphics card in the Ice Lake SoCs (10th generation core 10xxG7) for laptops. It offers no dedicated graphics memory (no eDRAM cache like the Intel Iris Graphics 655 predecessor of the Coffee Lake SoCs). 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 should be slightly above a AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 integrated GPU in the Ryzen 7 3000 series processors. e.g. Intel showed a Intel Iris Plus G7 against a Ryzen 7 3700U both configured at 25 Watt TDP and the Ice Lake GPU was able to beat the Vega 10 slightly in all games. Compared to the previous generation, Intel talks about a 2x performance improvement but wont specify the exact model. All in all the GPU should be positioned in the entry level of dedicated GPUs (Nvidia GeForce MX150 level?) and therefore most suited for less demanding games like Fortnite, Rainbow 6 Siege, or Rocket League at reduced details. The theoretical performance of the Chip is specified with 1.12 TFLOPS (FP32) and 2.25 TFLOPS (FP16) when running at 1.1 GHz.

Compared to the older Gen.9 graphics (e.g., UHD Graphics 620 in Whiskey Lake), Gen.11 is using a wider architecture and also has 3 MB dedicated L3 cache near the GPU.

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 G7 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.

The Intel UHD Graphics 24EUs (Xe-LP, Alder Lake-N, Gen 12.2) is a integrated graphics card in the mid range Alder Lake-N models like the Intel Processor N100. It is using the current Xe-LP architecture (Gen12) and was announced in late 2022. The GPU uses 24 of the 32 EUs (execution units) in the chip (192 of the 256 shader cores).

The performance is severely hindered by the single channel memory controller of Alder Lake-N, the low CPU performance and relatively low shader count. Therefore, only very low demanding games like Dota 2 in lowest settings can be played with the UHD Graphics GPU.

The whole SoC is manufactured in 10nm (Intel 7 process) at Intel.

The Intel Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (Tiger-Lake U GPU with 80 EUs) is a integrated graphics card in the mid range Tiger-Lake U CPUs (15 - 28 Watt, e.g. Core i5 11th Gen CPUs). It is using the new Xe architecture (Gen12) and should be announced later in 2020.

The performance depends on the TDP settings of the laptop and the used cooling. First informations show that the chip can be configured at 15 and 28 Watt TDP default (as the Ice Lake-U chips) and the performance should be around a dedicated GeForce MX330 in 3DMark benchmarks. For gaming we are expecting a bit worse performance due to the missing dedicated graphics memory and driver support. Compared to the older Iris Plus G4 in Ice Lake chips, the Tiger Lake GPU should be nearly twice as fast. Benchmarks with various laptops show that the 80EU version lacks about 18% behind the faster 96EU version and on par with the MX330. Compared to AMD iGPUs, the G7 80EU positions itself around the Vega 7 and Vega 8 chips (see chart below for details).

Therefore, the iGPU is still only for lowest graphical settings and low resolutions in demanding games. Some modern games like Days Gone or Cyberpunk wont run over 30 fps in minimum settings (see below).

The Tiger Lake SoCs and therefore the integrated GPU are manufactured in the modern 10nm+ (10nm Superfin) process (improved 10nm process) at Intel and therefore should offer a very good efficiency.