Intel’s Panther Lake CPUs Make the Greatest Case for ‘Fake Frames’ in Gaming

If your gaming machine isn’t rendering any frames itself, what’s the purpose of getting a expensive pc in any respect? I do know a few of you on the market are mumbling resentments, asking that query already realizing the reply. To add to the grumbling, Intel has lastly come off the road with its first version of Panther Lake CPUs, dubbed Core Ultra Series 3, and a brand new model of its current upscaler promising to push gaming on light-weight units. I’ve already examined it out on the Asus Zenbook Duo. It’s an awesome laptop computer with an awesome chip. Now right here comes the nitty-gritty of what that truly means for gamers determined for one machine to lastly do all of it.

Which brings me to the elephant within the room. Along with Panther Lake, Intel is providing gamers the prospect to check multi-frame era—aka “fake frames”—for themselves without having an more and more costly Nvidia or AMD GPU. Intel’s head of Arc graphics, Tom Petersen, beforehand instructed Gizmodo he’s used it in a number of video games, and he doesn’t even thoughts the odd graphical glitches it creates. The extra essential factor for him, he not too long ago instructed Digital Foundry, is a basic sense of smoothness for gaming—principally slicing down on CPU timings to remove awkward in-game stuttering.

I can compromise on some issues for an excellent gaming expertise, however not on others. I’m hardly the crabbiest stickler for graphical purity. Frame era is a kind of software program sleight-of-hand tips that PC avid gamers have come to detest. For some gamers, the barest idea of “fake frames” drives them mad, particularly since they’re paying hundreds of {dollars} for a gaming-capable PC. This newest rendition received’t change their minds.

Why is Intel’s body era completely different from the remainder?

Intel’s newest XeSS 3 mannequin is one in all a number of AI upscalers that take a picture rendered at a decrease decision after which use AI to therapeutic massage these pixels into one thing resembling the promised decision. This enhances body charges at the price of some visible constancy. To the PC purists’ chagrin, many trendy PC video games allow upscalers reminiscent of Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) by default. Every main gaming console from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all contains some upscaling capabilities.

While Nvidia’s DLSS 4.5 and AMD’s FSR Redstone are each locked to proprietary {hardware}, Intel’s XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) is machine agnostic (although AMD’s open FSR 3 and three.5 fashions stay energetic on many current titles). Either manner, XeSS multi-frame gen makes use of AI to examine the scene to create a number of frames, that are then interpolated in between two absolutely rendered frames. XeSS had entry to 2x body era earlier than. Multi-frame era solely exacerbates the promise and issues inherent to border interpolation.

Intel touted the gaming skills of the Core Ultra Series 3’s chips, and they’re engaging. There are two varieties of those CPUs among the many 14 choices the chipmaker confirmed off earlier this 12 months. The variations with an “X” of their title, specifically the Intel Core Ultra X7 and X9, embrace the additional 12Xe3 GPU cores. These graphics cores primarily based on the Arc B390 microarchitecture are supposed to supply robust efficiency for duties like rendering and gaming, all with out pushing these laptops’ whole energy package deal into the stratosphere.

What does body era appear to be on an Intel PC?

While XeSS is {hardware} agnostic, it does include sure benefits on an Intel machine. Like Nvidia, Intel has particular software program to override in-game graphics settings to make sure they’re utilizing the most recent XeSS 3 mannequin. You can set common XeSS settings or body era to 2x, 3x, or 4x on a per-game foundation. Unfortunately, the software program typically fails to acknowledge which video games are literally put in.

A title like Cyberpunk 2077 can get near 50 fps when operating on “Ultra” settings at 1080p on the Asus Zenbook Duo. You’ll solely preserve round 36 fps in benchmarks with the Zenbook Duo’s max 2,880 x 1,800 decision. Once you allow XeSS, the body charge can bounce to nearer to 45 fps, roughly relying on if you happen to go for “performance” or “quality” settings. If you wish to play with any ray tracing in any respect, you may solely count on playable body charges with XeSS.

Cyberpunk 2077 operating on an Asus Zenbook Duo with ray tracing “low” settings and max decision. It can nonetheless hit that body charge with out body gen due to XeSS upscaling.

Once body era comes on-line, that’s after I can begin to play the sport at close to 60, close to 80, and nearer to 90 fps with 2x, 3x, or 4x body era, respectively. But right here’s the main caveat. Frame era causes two main points: latency and visible artifacts. The recreation operating at 4x body gen feels noticeably floatier—although not unplayable. I might discover how when flicking the digital camera shortly, I’d see ghostly flickering of streetlights and screens over the streets of Night City.

What Intel doesn’t inform you is that to keep away from any visible glitches, you need as near 60 fps as potential already earlier than you allow body era. If I drop Cyberpunk 2077 right down to 1080p, then I can edge nearer to 40 fps to maintain ray tracing going and see much less odd flickering. There had been fewer issues with the present 2x body gen, in any case.

In a recreation like Hogwarts Legacy, I can internet greater than 90 fps indoors when the laptop computer is barely rendering lower than 30 fps. When operating round, I observed quite a few graphical glitches with creeping shadows that climbed up the participant character’s robes.

Here you may see Hogwarts Legacy with out and with body era. The recreation runs pretty effectively even with out generated frames. 

Without body era, with Intel XeSS on balanced settings, I can hit a stable 40 fps to 50 fps in indoor environments and between 30 fps and 40 fps outdoor with all of the graphics cranked as much as max. Do I would like 60 fps? I’ll as effectively scale back some graphics settings relatively than make excuses for awkward graphical artifacting.

So what if we go actually ludicrous and attempt to play Cyberpunk 2077 with 4x body gen with ray tracing settings set to extremely? Sure, I can get greater than 60 fps within the recreation when the precise generated body charge is shut to twenty fps on the Zenbook Duo’s highest, 3K decision. All I can say is that the laptop computer is doing its finest, however there are some apparent and evident visible artifacting that even probably the most tolerant participant would discover exhausting to excuse.

Maybe I’ll like body gen extra on a handheld

Gamers aren’t any monolith. Some gamers could not care about lowering their decision to half of what their display screen really helps if it means a playable recreation. I’m a kind of gamers who can not stand to have a look at fuzzy textures and decreased UI element for the sake of upper body charges. I’d relatively scale back graphics settings than scale back my decision.

Mind you, these base body charges I can get in video games with out body era are nonetheless spectacular. On a Zenbook Duo, video games like Cyberpunk 2077 are certainly playable and visually beautiful in scenes. It’s the closest we’ve seen to the single-chip efficiency of AMD’s Strix Halo chips and at a a lot decrease TDP (thermal design energy) and with out AMD’s touted GPU structure. And there’s the rub. You’ll must sacrifice one thing for gaming on a cell Intel Panther Lake machine.

For smaller, cheaper units, upscaling and—sure—even body era make way more sense. It’s value a glance on a laptop computer (even one as costly because the $2,300 Asus Zenbook Duo), although I wouldn’t hinge my hopes on it. Intel has already known as its shot by promising we’ll see a handheld-specific chip, dubbed Intel Core G3. We could even see Intel-based handheld gaming PCs from corporations like Acer and MSI later this 12 months, or so we hope. There, 1080p gaming is the norm. When gaming on a smaller display screen, it’s a lot more durable to identify any visible inconsistencies. For the sake of playable body charges on the go, Intel could already be kicking in AMD’s enamel on its manner via the door.

For now, Intel’s pretend frames on laptops will nonetheless be a blended bag. Some who purchase an costly laptop computer with one in all Intel’s higher-end GPU chips could not care about floatier controls or awkward visuals if they will push their body charge to close the max of what their show is able to. Others could also be extra gun-shy, and rightfully so.