More Intel Meteor Lake troubles: Leak suggests Xe-LPG iGPU might not beat AMD's Radeon 780M

Intel’s Meteor Lake processors optimized for power efficiency are expected to launch on laptops in just a few weeks, and we have already seen leaked configurations from major OEMs featuring Core Ultra SKUs. Most, if not all of the leaked configurations also feature an Nvidia dGPU, suggesting that the new Xe-LPG iGPUs still need some help beyond 1080p. That also happened with AMD’s Phoenix APUs with integrated Radeon 780M, as most OEMs were coupling it with mid-range dGPUs. However, Moore’s Law Is Dead is now alleging that the Xe-LPG iGPUs may actually turn out to be less powerful than previously hinted by Intel.

Expanding on the Meteor Lake CPU performance leaks from a few weeks ago that were presenting the overall disappointment with quite a few laptop OEMs, MLID adds more fuel to the fire in his latest podcast talking about the underwhelming Xe-LPG iGPU performance corroborated with the single-digit CPU efficiency over Raptor Lake.

An Intel source close to MLID claims that MTL’s Xe-LPG iGPU seems to be 1.6 - 1.9 times faster than Raptor Lake. Since Tiger Lake in 2020, Intel has not really upgraded the iris Xe iGPUs, so we are looking at almost doubling the performance of a 3-year old iGPU now. MLID points out that Intel’s official slides were aiming for at least 2X the performance of an Iris Xe iGPU from Alder Lake. However, the Intel contact is saying that Xe-LPG is barely doubling the Raptor Lake iGPU performance, which is sometimes almost 50% slower than AMD’s Radeon 780M. That means the AMD Phoenix 3 / 4 Ryzen 8000U/HS processors will still be able to trade blows and maybe even overtake Meteor Lake in iGPU performance. Then, AMD will also launch Strix Point in 2H 2024 and that will probably “bury” the Intel competition.

Moreover, MLID believes that the power efficiency issues of the Meteor Lake processors could cause price discrepancies with upcoming laptop lineups. If Dell’s leaked configurations are correct in showing that the lower-end XPS models will feature the Raptor Lake Refresh H/HX processors, while the new Core Ultra Meteor Lake SKUs would be included with the higher-end XPS 16 laptops, then the whole superior power efficiency spiel for Meteor Lake goes out the window. What we could see is MTL ending up in expensive desktop-replacement laptops with dGPUs instead of shining in mid-range ultrabooks with no dGPUs.

The only segment that could benefit from MTL would be business laptops, yet these are historically more expensive due to OEMs adding more security and now more AI-powered features.

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