Intel puts new separate Iris Xe Max GPU in three laptops and provides details

Intel has made its first separate GPU, the Iris Xe Max, available in three laptops from Dell, Acer and Asus. Intel claims that thanks to a collaboration between eleventh generation Core processors, encoding video with this GPU is faster than with an RTX 2080 from Nvidia.

The technology for making the integrated GPU and the Iris Xe Max work together is called Deep Link. This is a software framework that estimates whether a task can be properly performed by the igpu, the dgpu or both. Intel claims that thanks to the latter option, the encoding of its GPU in Handbrake, for example, is up to 1.8 times faster than with a laptop with an RTX 2080 and Core i9-10980HK.

In addition to the coding performance, the Intel Iris Xe Max also has to offer more in terms of gaming than Intel has done so far. The company itself speaks of ‘great thin & light 1080p performance in popular games’. At that resolution, the GPU should show 30-45fps in games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3 and The Witcher 3. Two new software solutions, Game Sharpening and Instant Game Tuning, should also improve performance here. Independent benchmarks of this performance and those in the field of coding do not exist yet.

According to slides from Intel, the Iris Xe Max has a total of 96 execution units and the GPU runs at a clock speed of 1.65 GHz. It has 4GB of Lpddr4x memory at its disposal, with a bandwidth of 68GB / s.

The laptops in question are the Acer Swift 3x, Asus VivoBook Flip TP470 and the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2 in 1, which can only be found at an American retail chain for the time being. It is not yet clear whether and when these will come to the Benelux.

Intel further states in its announcement that it is also working on its line of separate GPUs for desktop PCs. It states that the GPUs are suitable for all applications, high and low, but it will start with the introduction of GPUs for ‘value desktops’ in the first half of 2021.