Double graphics performance: Intel XE GPUs

With its integrated Vega GPUs, AMD didn't manage to become really dangerous for Intel. Not yet. But AMD is putting pressure on the top dogs with the 7 nm Ryzen 3000 CPUs – when it comes to desktop and mobile applications. On top of this, Intel is struggling with bottlenecks in its own 14 nm range, so the company is under pressure to take action. Now Intel announced at the IDC event in Tokyo that they will launch new iGPUs with doubled performance compared to the Gen 11 Iris Plus iGPUs in mid 2020.

The new Gen 12 XE-GPUs (Tiger Lake), dont only come with a 100 percent performance increase compared to Ice Lake, but also support ray tracing at the hardware level. This will probably allow Intel to compete with Nvidia's upcoming Ampere GPUs. The manufacturing process is not yet known. Presumably, production will take place in the refined «14nm++» manufacturing process technology before Intel will switch to 7 nm for 2021.

This is good news for fans of mobile gaming. The future mobile devices with 12-Gen iGPU will probably make players of Overwatch, Fortnite or Rocket League happy. For other graphical applications, however, this is only a slight improvement considering the moderate performance of iGPUs. The first devices with Tiger-Lake CPUs and 12-Gen iGPUs will probably be presented at Computex at the beginning of June 2020.