“Intel XeSS 2 Unleashes Frame Generation Frenzy: Evolving Super Sampling Battlefield with Nvidia DLSS Beater?
Intel Unleashes Its Second-Gen Gaming GPUs: Battlemage and Beyond
Intel has just launched its second-generation gaming GPUs, codenamed Battlemage, kicking off with the Arc B580 and B570 graphics cards. While they’re only targeting Nvidia’s low-end RTX 4060 for now, Intel’s Battlemage GPUs have some impressive features up their sleeve.
Upscaling with XeSS 2
To complement the launch of Battlemage, Intel is also rolling out a new version of its upscaling tech, known as XeSS 2. The big news is the addition of frame generation, making it pretty much feature-competitive with Nvidia’s DLSS. XeSS 2 uses AI-accelerated upscaling, thanks to Intel’s XMX cores, which are similar to Nvidia’s Tensor cores.
Frame Generation: The Next Step
Intel’s Frame Generation looks to be similar to Nvidia’s DLSS algorithm. It uses data from previous frames, including motion vectors and depth information, to feed into optical flow and motion vector reprojection algorithms, which are blended together to generate interim frames that can be inserted between frames fully rendered in the 3D pipeline.
Performance Boosts
Intel’s claims for the total performance uplift are staggering. In its highest performance mode, running F1 24 at 1440p, XESS 2’s upscaling combined with the new Frame Generation feature boosts performance from 48 fps to a faintly staggering 186 fps. That’s a 3.9x uplift. Even using the highest visual quality, performance jumps by 2.8x to 136 fps.
XeLL: Low Latency Mode
To complement XeSS Super Resolution scaling and the frame generation features, known as XeSS-SR and XeSS-FG for short, Intel is also introducing XeLL. This feature is analogous to Nvidia’s Reflex tech and Intel claims it can reduce latency running at just under 50 fps from 57 ms to 32 ms. Intel also says the XeLL can be used to essentially offset the latency added when enabling its Frame Generation tech.
The Future of Gaming
When you add it all together, it’s a very complete feature set that rivals Nvidia on paper and surpasses AMD’s essentially non-AI gaming GPUs. Exactly how well XeSS 2 will perform in practice and how its image quality will compare with both Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR, well, we’ll have to wait and see.
Image 1: Intel XeSS 2
Image 2: Intel XeSS Frame Generation
Image: Intel XeSS Frame Generation
Image 3: Intel XeLL
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