Intel XeSS efficiency will get a giant enhance, however there’s an even bigger catch

Intel XeSS is commonly an afterthought with regards to upscaling tech, with Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR main the best way, however Intel is clearly nonetheless engaged on its decision upscaling tech. The corporate has simply launched XeSS replace 1.3, which on the floor seems to be prefer it boosts efficiency by as much as 20fps over the earlier model, however there’s a giant catch.

In benchmarks supplied by Intel, the corporate has examined the brand new XeSS 1.3 replace on the Core Extremely 7 155H and Arc A750. That is notable, as a result of the Intel Core Extremely 7 155H powers the MSI Claw, which is at the moment going through main criticism for its poor gaming efficiency.

Whereas replace 1.3 is unlikely to revolutionize efficiency on the hand held, it’s a optimistic transfer that might see key video games run a lot smoother. In Cyberpunk 2077 on medium settings at 1080p, the 1.3 replace gives a further 2fps over the earlier XeSS model, and an 11fps enchancment over efficiency with no upscaling in any respect. The largest enhance supplied by XeSS 1.3 is seen in Ghostrunner 2, which runs at 74fps with XeSS however will increase to 84fps with XeSS 1.3.

The brand new tech additionally makes a giant distinction to efficiency in Diablo 4 with ray tracing on Intel’s Arc A750 GPU. With no upscaling at 2,560 x 1,440, the GPU averages a uneven 37fps, however this improves to an enormous 91fps when utilizing XeSS 1.3 – that’s a great 20fps in entrance of the 70fps achieved with the earlier model of XeSS.

As with the latest announcement of AMD FSR 3.1, Intel XeSS 1.3 additionally addresses a few of the artefacts created by upscaling tech, together with temporal stability and ghosting.

So what’s the catch we talked about earlier? Properly, this enhance in efficiency doesn’t come without spending a dime, as Intel has moved the goalposts for its high quality settings. Intel is increasing from its present setup; Extremely High quality, High quality, Balanced, and Efficiency by including two new profiles; Extremely Efficiency and Extremely High quality Plus. XeSS 1.3 additionally provides a Native Anti-Aliasing profile which mimicks Nvidia’s DLAA.

The scaling inside every profile can be being adjusted and you’ll see all of the adjustments within the desk under:

In easy phrases, every of the unique upscaling profiles has seen its scaling enhance, that means it’s rendering at a decrease decision than earlier than. This implies in the event you sometimes discover that the High quality profile gives the perfect picture high quality, you will have to modify to Extremely High quality as an alternative. Intel might effectively have improved its upscaling tech as effectively, however there’s little question that the most important a part of this efficiency enhance could have come from reducing the rendering decision.

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