Intel Accelerates Gaming and Content Creation with Iris Xe MAX Mobile GPU and Deep Link Technology

Although some strategic mentions of Intel’s upcoming discrete mobile graphics solution, called the Iris Xe MAX, have surfaced earlier this month, today Intel officially unveils the product alongside laptop offerings from OEM partners from Acer, ASUS, and Dell. You can think of the Iris Xe MAX as the same integrated base GPU that resides on Intel’s Tiger Lake processor platform, but with an increased clock speed of 1.65 GHz (from 1.35 GHz) and 4 GB of LPDDR4x graphics memory. dedicated with 68 GB / s memory bandwidth. Intel’s discrete graphics chip (codenamed DG1) is based on the same fabulous 10nm Intel SuperFin process but, in addition to its higher clock speed and VRAM, Intel has enabled its 11^th The Gen Tiger Lake platform to work in tandem with the discrete chip, leveraging both GPU engines for combined performance benefits in content creation workloads.

Again, although Iris Xe MAX is based on the same 96 EU (Execution Unit) design that resides in the Tiger Lake Iris Xe graphics, as a discrete solution Intel can increase its power target for higher clock speeds and width of memory band with better latency characteristics, as the GPU does not have to take advantage of system memory with its own dedicated 4GB frame buffer. However, the real differentiation that Intel is bringing to laptops with Iris Xe MAX is a technology the company calls Deep Link.

Deep Link harnesses the power of all available onboard processing engines, including the CPU and both the discrete Iris Xe MAX GPU and the onboard Tiger Lake Iris Xe GPU, through a common software framework, to accelerate applications. video transcoding workloads, as well as AI-enhanced inference workloads for content creation using Intel Iris Xe DP4a engines. Developers will be able to take advantage of Intel Deep Link through Intel’s Media SDK and OpenVINO toolkits for impressive performance gains. Intel notes that HandBrake, Open Broadcaster, and Topaz Gigapixel AI currently support Deep Link, with support for Blender, Magix, CyberLink, and Fluendo applications shortly.

Intel Deep Link Technology also enables dynamic power exchange between the CPU and both GPUs, again harnessing all resources for smart performance and load balancing. Intel Specifically Shows Performance Against NVIDIA’s Discrete GeForce MX 350 GPU On Board 10^th or 11^th Portable platforms with generation Intel Core technology, in applications such as Handbrake for video transcoding and Abobe Lightroom for image processing, with a performance increase of 20 to 40%. The company also details a proof of concept for Handbrake video encoding, using Deep Link with all Iris Xe and Xe MAX Quick Sync media encoders, chewing up a single encoding stream at more than twice the performance of a rugged NVIDIA GeForce. RTX 2080. Super with its NVENC encoder. Although a current demo video that Intel put together (above) shows a 1.78X magnification, regardless, the combined performance performed is impressive.

This is also an area where thin and light laptops could really benefit from the technology, as more users are dealing with heavier content creation workloads on laptops than ever before. “We set out to redefine the role of discrete graphics in thin and light laptops and to address a growing segment of creators who want greater portability. Iris Xe MAX graphics and Intel® Deep Link Technology serve as examples of the kind of platform-level innovation Intel plans to bring to market in the future as we execute our scalable Xe roadmap. ” says Roger Chandler, vice president and general manager of Client XPU products and solutions in Intel’s architecture, graphics and software group.

Finally, while multi-GPU gaming rendering is fading fast at sunset, Intel again underlined the performance of the Iris Xe MAX against discrete NVIDIA MX350 solutions, winning most of the time on several popular game titles. Additionally, Intel is actively profiling hundreds of games to determine optimal performance on Tiger Lake’s Iris Xe integrated graphics or Iris Xe MAX discrete GPU, as a few select games may perform slightly better on the IGP. The company notes that the game’s profiles will be integrated into its future driver releases.

Intel notes that laptops with its Iris Xe MAX technology will arrive next month, with specific models including the Acer Swift 3X, ASUS VivoBook TP470, and Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 as the first machines to come out.