Preliminary performance tests suggest that Intel’s first discrete graphics processor for laptops, the Iris Xe Max, provides only a modest improvement over the performance of the graphics silicon that is already built into the chip giant’s latest Tiger Lake CPUs.
We tested a handful of popular games, including Counter Strike: Global Offensive, on an Xe Max-equipped Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 laptop, and found slightly worse performance than gamers can expect from an equivalent laptop that uses the Iris Xe silicon that is built into Intel’s higher-end 11th Generation Core CPUs.
For casual gamers, these results suggest that the new Iris Xe Max GPU isn’t a huge leap forward in gaming-graphics processing for thin-and-light laptops. That contrasts with the remarkable achievements of the integrated Iris Xe graphics, which have shown some real gains that, in some cases, make it possible to run graphics-intensive titles on laptops that aren’t otherwise designed for gaming.