Intel UHD Graphics 24EUs (Alder Lake-N) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M vs Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs

The Intel UHD Graphics 24EUs (Xe-LP, Alder Lake-N, Gen 12.2) is a integrated graphics card in the mid range Alder Lake-N models like the Intel Processor N100. It is using the current Xe-LP architecture (Gen12) and was announced in late 2022. The GPU uses 24 of the 32 EUs (execution units) in the chip (192 of the 256 shader cores).

The performance is severely hindered by the single channel memory controller of Alder Lake-N, the low CPU performance and relatively low shader count. Therefore, only very low demanding games like Dota 2 in lowest settings can be played with the UHD Graphics GPU.

The whole SoC is manufactured in 10nm (Intel 7 process) at Intel.

The Intel Xe Graphics G7 (Tiger-Lake U GPU with 96 EUs) is a integrated graphics card in the high end Tiger-Lake U CPUs (15 - 28 Watt). It is using the new Xe architecture (Gen12) and was introduced in September 2020. The GPU clocks with a base clock speed (guaranteed) of 400 MHz in all CPUs and can boost up to 1340 MHz (i7-1185G7). The slowest variant offers only 1100 MHz boost (i5-1130G7, 12 Watt TDP).

The performance depends on the TDP settings of the laptop and the used cooling. First informations show that the chip can be configured at 12 and 28 Watt TDP default (as the Ice Lake-U chips) and the performance should be around a dedicated GeForce MX350 in 3DMark benchmarks. For gaming we are expecting a bit worse performance due to the missing dedicated graphics memory and driver support. Many games e.g. had problems when testing the various laptops (e.g. Horizon Zero Dawn or Cyberpunk 2077 did not start or were crashing - see list below). Less demanding games like the Mass Effect Legendary Edition ran in medium settings fine. Compared to the older Ice Lake Iris Plus G7 GPU, the new Tiger Lake GPU should be approximately twice as fast. Therefore, the iGPU is still only for lowest graphical settings and low resolutions in demanding games.

The Tiger Lake SoCs and therefore the integrated GPU are manufactured in the modern 10nm+ (10nm SuperFin) process (improved 10nm process) at Intel and therefore should offer a very good efficiency.