Linux Benchmarks Show Meteor Lake’s iGPU is 2x More Efficient Than Last-Gen

Phoronix conducted a series of benchmarks, comparing Meteor Lake’s iGPU to previous generations. With Meteor Lake, the graphics performance sees a major uptick thanks to the inception of Xe-LPG. As compared to Whiskey Lake (8th Generation), Meteor Lake packs 5.27x more performance at almost similar power levels.

Meteor Lake’s Massive Efficiency and Performance Gains

The test bench consists of 5 laptops having 16GB of RAM, running Ubuntu 23.10 using the Linux 6.7-rc5 kernel. Apparently, all devices were priced between $1000-$1200 at the time of launch, making them suitable for such a comparison. The CPUs used for this test are as follows:

• Core i7 8565U – Dell XPS 13 9380
• Core i7 1065G7 – Dell XPS 13 7390
• Core i7 1165G7 – Dell XPS 13 9310
• Core i7 1280P – MSI Prestige 14 Evo
• Core 7 Ultra 155H – Acer Swift Go 14

Across a suite of tests and benchmarks, the Meteor Lake processor simply outclasses its predecessor. There is an obvious performance increase, but efficiency too has gone up significantly. In fact, many previous tests show that Meteor Lake’s iGPU is a strong contender against AMD’s Phoenix APUs.

As showcased below, the gen-on-gen performance uplift is nothing to scoff at. Meteor Lake’s iGPU is 34% faster than Alder Lake, and over 5.27x more performant than Whiskey Lake. Xe-LP was first introduced with Tiger Lake, over which Meteor Lake performs more than 1.7x faster.

In terms of power consumption, Meteor Lake isn’t a power hog, unlike its predecessor. The Core 7 Ultra 155H consumed 24 Watts on average during all the benchmarks. This is 33% lower in contrast to the i7 1280P, which averaged at around 36 Watts.

Intel has also managed to lower the peak power usage by 31%. Power consumption is an important metric since laptops and handhelds have limited batteries and can only dissipate so much heat.

If we talk about actual efficiency, which is performance per watt, Meteor Lake dominates with a 2x efficiency boost over Alder Lake. That is an insane increment, putting these iGPUs neck to neck against AMD’s best. Compared to the 2018 Whiskey Lake chip, Intel can now tout a 4.6x efficiency lead.

In short, Meteor Lake provides longer battery timings, without losing much performance courtesy of improved efficiency.

• Core Ultra 7 155H (Perf./Watt) – 7 points
• Core i7 1280P (Perf./Watt) – 3.5 points
• Core i7 1185G7 (Perf./Watt) – 4.5 points
• Core i7 1065G7 (Perf./Watt) – 4.2 points
• Core i7 8565U (Perf./Watt) – 1.5 points

Conclusion

Intel’s iGPU performance a while back was so poor, that UHD Graphics had no more value than being fuel for memes and jokes. The start of Xe Graphics marked a revolutionary point for Intel and now Arc on mobile is becoming a serious threat to Radeon. AMD’s software stack is more mature and well-optimized, but the more competition, the merrier.

By early 2024, we could very well see Meteor Lake adopted by many handheld manufacturers. See, efficiency is one thing, but keeping the graph as linear as possible below 30 Watts is what’s important for this form factor.

Synthetic benchmarks aren’t the be-all and end-all of performance evaluation, however, the same results can be translated into real-world scenarios given proper drivers to back the iGPU. Desktop users might have to wait a bit as Xe will arrive for desktop with Arrow Lake in late 2024.

Source: Phoronix