Intel Meteor Lake Arc GPU: First performance results indicate Radeon 780M iGPU level
The Intel Meteor Lake Arc GPU shows comparable performance to the AMD RDNA 3 Radeon 780M iGPU according to the latest test leaks. Expectations for Intel Meteor Lake processors suggest that they will bring a significant improvement in graphics with an integrated Arc GPU core based on the Alchemist architecture. This new architecture should provide a huge improvement over the existing UHD & Iris graphics chips that have been used in desktop and laptop computers for several years.
The test results are from the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo laptop that was listed on online retailers yesterday. This laptop is configured with a Core Ultra 7 155H processor that has 16 cores, 22 instruction sets, 24 MB of L3 cache, and a frequency that goes up to 4.8 GHz.
This chip has a declared TDP of 28 W, so we can assume that Core Ultra 9 processors with 45 W will offer slightly better performance on both the CPU and GPU side. The graphics part comes with an Intel Arc Graphics solution with 128 EU (Execution Units) or 1024 ALU (Arithmetic Logic Units) operating at a frequency of up to 2250 MHz.
As Wccftech writes, the Meteor Lake-P line has reportedly been cancelled, and will be replaced by the MTL-H CPU in versions: 28 W – Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7, as well as 45 W – Core Ultra 9.
GeekbenchIn terms of performance, the Intel Meteor Lake Arc GPU scored 27,249 points in the Geekbench 5 OpenCL tests, which is roughly on par with the AMD Radeon 780M iGPU found on the latest AMD Phoenix APUs. It is important to note that the Ryzen 7940HS and 7840HS processors also have a higher TDP, and achieve a higher OpenCL score with their Radeon 780M graphics, while the comparable AMD Ryzen 7 7840U with 15-30 W achieved a similar score for its Radeon 780M iGPU.
Of course, Nvidia products can also enter the equation, and the aforementioned Meteor Lake Arc GPU, i.e. iGPU, is of the same level as the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. We can expect the final optimized drivers to further improve performance on the level of Nvidia GTX 1650 and RX 480 products.
Intel recently demonstrated XeSS performance demo with integrated Arc GPU, offering almost twice the performance in the Dying Light 2 game, compared to XeSS optimization turned off. For gaming, the addition of XeSS software (Xe Super Sampling) will be a big deal, but it doesn't show up in “synthetic” tests like OpenCL Geekbench.
Reported performance is on par with low-end discrete graphics, but supports the latest features like Ray Tracing, DX12 Ultimate and XeSS. An iGPU also means you don't have to worry about the high power consumption associated with dGPUs, so you can have longer battery life. In the coming period, however, we can expect more information about Intel Meteor Lake integrated graphics as we get closer to their launch on December 14.