Intel UHD Graphics G4 (Lakefield GT1 48 EU) vs Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs vs Intel UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 32 EU)

The Intel UHD Graphics G4 (Lakefield GT1 with 48 EUs) is an integrated graphics card in the Lakefield SoCs (e.g. Core i3-L13G4) for laptops. It offers no dedicated graphics memory (no eDRAM cache like the Intel Iris Graphics 655 predecessor of the Coffee Lake SoCs). The clock rate ranges between 200 MHz (guaranteed base clock) up to 500 MHz (boost). The TDP of the whole SoC is specified at 7 Watt.

The GPU performance should be a bit slower than the old Intel HD Graphics 620 and therefore only some low demanding games like League of Legends should run with the UHD Graphics.

A special new feature of the Gen11 graphics card is the new Variable Rate Shading (VRS) support. With it game designers can decide where to spend shading time and e.g. shade object in the background or behind fog with less resolution (up to using only one source for a 4x4 block). With this technique early results show up to 1.3x performance in Unreal Engine POC and 1.2x speedup in Civ 6. Up to now VRS is only supported by the new Nvidia Turing architecture (GTX 1650 and up).

The Lakefield SoCs and therefore the integrated GPU are manufactured in the modern 10nm process at Intel that should be comparable to the 7nm process of TSMC.

The Intel UHD Graphics Xe Graphics G4 (Tiger-Lake U GPU with 48 EUs) is a integrated graphics card in the low end Tiger-Lake U CPUs (15 Watt, e.g. Core i3 11th Gen). It is using the new Xe architecture (Gen12) and should be announced later in 2020.

The performance depends on the TDP settings of the laptop and the used cooling. First informations show that the chip can be configured at 15 and 28 Watt TDP default (as the Ice Lake-U chips) and the performance should be around a dedicated GeForce MX230 in 3DMark benchmarks. For gaming we are expecting a bit worse performance due to the missing dedicated graphics memory and driver support. Compared to the fastest Ice Lake iGPU (Iris Plus G7), the 48 EU version in an i3 should be slightly faster. 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+ process (improved 10nm process) at Intel and therefore should offer a very good efficiency.

The Intel UHD Graphics 32 EUs (Jasper Lake, Gen. 11) is an integrated graphics card in the Jasper Lake Pentium SoCs for laptops and small desktops. It is the fastest GPU version in the Jasper Lake series (Pentium Silver) and offers all 32 EUs (Execution Units / Shader Blocks). It offers no dedicated graphics memory and the clock rate depends on the processor model. At launch there are two Pentium Silver models (N6000 with 6W and N6005 with 10W) clocked at 350 - 900 MHz.

Thanks to the improved architecture and more EUs, the UHD Graphics is clearly faster than the old Gemini Lake SoCs (e.g. N5000). Intel states up to 78% better 3DMark Fire Strike scores and up to 22% more FPS in Rocket League. Still only very low demanding games should be playable.

A special new feature of the Gen11 graphics card is the new Variable Rate Shading (VRS) support. With it game designers can decide where to spend shading time and e.g. shade object in the background or behind fog with less resolution (up to using only one source for a 4x4 block). With this technique early results show up to 1.3x performance in Unreal Engine POC and 1.2x speedup in Civ 6. Up to now VRS is only supported by the new Nvidia Turing architecture (GTX 1650 and up).

Another improved hardware piece is the integrated video de- and encoder that was improved significantly according to Intel. They did not specify any more details, but the previous generation was able to decode VP9 and H.265/HEVC in Main10 profile with 10 bit color depth using the dedicated hardware.

The Jasper Lake SoCs and therefore the integrated GPU are manufactured in the 10nm process (like Ice Lake probably) at Intel that should be comparable to the 7nm process of TSMC.