A featured image of the Intel DG1 GPU.
Intel has demonstrated the performance of its 10nm Tiger Lake CPUs with Xe GPU in Battlefield V. A short section of the game was shown running on the Tiger Lake CPU but what makes this more interesting is the fact that Intel also shared the settings of the game and the performance during the demo.
Intel’s Tiger Lake CPU With Xe Graphics Runs Battlefield V at 1080p 30 FPS & High Settings Using Early Drivers
Ryan Shrout, Intel’s Chief Performance Strategist, posted the short demo of the game running on an unreleased 11th Generation Tiger Lake CPU based laptop. The game was running at 1080p at the high graphics quality preset (DirectX 11). During the entirety of the video, the game can be seen averaging around 30 FPS which is a solid performance for an integrated GPU. Ryan mentioned that the game was tested with early drivers & software so there’s still room for improvement before the finalized variants ship in the coming months.
The demo is definitely impressive but there are some things that Intel didn’t point out to. First of all, the specific CPU variant isn’t mentioned nor are the clocks for the CPU or the GPU. Intel’s Tiger Lake 10nm CPU family will have several variants but the Tiger Lake-U series is restricted to 4 cores and 8 threads in 15W designs. There will also be several iGPU configurations for the Xe chip which maxes out at 96 EUs but if this laptop featured a lower EU count, than that would mean even better performance with the flagship parts. There are also no details on whether the laptop was running entirely on battery or was it being powered during the gameplay.
Perks of the job! Took a prototype Tiger Lake system for a spin on Battlefield V to stretch its legs. Impressive thin and light gaming perf with Xe graphics! Early drivers/sw, but it’s the first time I’ve seen this game run like this on integrated gfx. More later this year! pic.twitter.com/f1Qlz2jMyB
— Ryan Shrout (@ryanshrout) June 17, 2020
Little things such as these need to be answered before we can form a verdict on the performance of unreleased CPUs. Regardless, the Xe GPU architecture is looking to offer better performance than AMD’s 7nm Vega GPUs which have been embedded across the entire Ryzen 4000 APU lineup. A few benchmarks leaked out earlier this month which showcased pretty good performance for both, the CPU & GPU part on the Tiger Lake-U CPUs.
Intel Tiger Lake vs AMD Renoir Mobility CPU Comparisons:
| CPU Family Name | Intel Tiger Lake-U | AMD Renoir U-Series |
|---|---|---|
| Family Branding | Intel 11th Gen Core (U-series) | AMD Ryzen 4000 (U-Series) |
| Process Node | 10nm | 7nm |
| CPU Core Architecture | Willow Cove | Zen 2 |
| CPU Cores/Threads (Max) | 4/8 | 8/16 |
| Max CPU Clocks | TBD (Core i7-1185G7) | 4.2 GHz (Ryzen 7 4800U) |
| GPU Core Architecture | Xe Graphics Engine | Vega Enhanced 7nm |
| Max GPU Cores | 96 EUs (768 cores) | 8 CUs (512 cores) |
| Max GPU Clocks | TBD | 1750 MHz |
| TDP (cTDP Down/Up) | 15W (12W-28W) | 15W (10W-25W) |
| Launch | Mid 2020 | March 2020 |
Intel Tiger Lake processors are expected to arrive in a few months and will feature some new changes to the architecture. First up, they will have the new Willow Cove cores replacing Sunny Cove cores which are currently featured on Ice Lake processors. Along with the new cores, we will get cache redesigns as stated above, new transistor-level optimizations, and enhanced security features. Intel will also be featuring their Xe-LP GPUs on Tiger Lake chips which would deliver a 2x increase in perf over the Gen 11 GPU featured currently on Ice Lake chips.
That and coupled with the Xe GPU architecture, the 10nm+ node should also deliver increased clocks compared to the first iteration of the 10nm+ architecture featured on Ice Lake chips. The 10nm Tiger Lake CPUs would tackle AMD’s 7nm Zen 2 based Ryzen 4000 ‘Renoir’ family in mid of 2020.
