Thin and Light Notebooks: It’s Game Time with Ice Lake
It’s not a surprise to anyone reading this blog, but Intel has major aspirations in the world of graphics and GPU compute. Every technical journey starts with a single step, and for us, that latest step was the release of the Ice Lake architecture, part of the 10th Gen Intel Core processor family.
Ice Lake marks a significant performance milestone for Intel, with a big jump in generational graphics performance, scaling up to 1.8x over Whiskey Lake 8th Gen processors(1). Also, Ice Lake was the first Gen 11 graphics implementation that shows matching (or better!) performance when compared to the best options in the mobile space from AMD.
When I presented to press at Computex, the significance of the moment could not have been overstated: Intel is not only showing the world that it is a graphics company but that we had successfully iterated and addressed a nagging performance thorn in our designs.
For as long as I can remember, and that goes back at least 18 years of covering hardware as technical press, the idea of gaming on Intel integrated graphics would have brought a chuckle. But the reality has changed with Ice Lake today and Tiger Lake coming next year, and our mindset about what integrated graphics on Intel chips means for the market must shift.
One of the benefits of being at Intel now is that I get to play with some of our new products, architectures, and partner designs early in the development cycle. The Razer Blade Stealth 13 with the Core i7–1065G7 and Iris Plus Graphics is an example. We were able to use early models for data generation at the Computex and IFA “Real World Performance” Events — and I of course had to buy one for our labs to have access to full time!
The Razer implementation of the Core i7–1065G7 is unique in the market (thus far) in that it integrates the chip with a maximum TDP of 25W, and optionally can run at 15W or 20W modes based on the mode you set in the Razer Synapse software. This allows users to customize the acoustics and performance of the machine to best match their intended use — gaming, productivity, or something else.
Seeing as I’m hard-wired for reviews and product analysis, I’ve been spending some time “testing” this machine at the office, at home, and on the road. Prepared for the experience with the data that our labs have generated, I am impressed by the capability the hardware shows, presenting not just a usable gaming experience, but a fantastic one.
You would not likely have expected a thin and light notebook to satisfy your gaming needs, but it’s now possible to get best-in-class notebook performance and battery life while also supporting your gaming habit on the go. I travel out to Intel HQ in Santa Clara frequently and bringing a machine like this just makes sense.
I’m not here to review and compare the Razer Blade Stealth 13 to any contemporaries; I’ll leave that to independent reviewers. But I wanted to share a few data points to showcase how a thin-and-light design can offer up mobility and gaming when powered exclusively by Intel hardware.
I’ve been playing Rainbow 6: Siege at 1920x1080 at the Medium quality preset and the game is stunning at these settings. It runs at an average frame rate of nearly 48 FPS with a consistent frame time as well, hitting over 40 FPS for the bottom 5th percentile and over 37 FPS for the bottom 1st percentile! I had no issues playing what is often times a tense hostage-rescue first-person shooter on Ice Lake. (BTW — thanks to CapFrameX for the great visualization software for our PresentMon measurements!)
As I attempt to live out my dream of racing for the Silver Arrows, F1 2019 performance is excellent on the Razer Ice Lake system, averaging over 40 FPS. This frame rate is the lowest of the three game results I’m showing, and had I moved to 1080p at the Low preset instead of Medium, that would be noticeably higher. However, the game style and visual quality differences proved this to be the best balance for me. The frame time consistency was excellent with no noticeable hitching and a bottom 1st percentile over 33 FPS.
Finally, I had to dive into Fortnite on Ice Lake, and when playing at 1080p and the Low preset, the game was averaging 55 FPS over more than 5 minutes of recorded gameplay. Frame times are very tight and any stutter was incredibly minimal. The bottom 5th percentile frame rate was 44.5 FPS and the bottom 1st percentile was nearly 40 FPS.
Not only was the Fortnite gaming experience exceptional on the Razer Blade Stealth 13, I validated the performance appropriately by bringing home my first Victory Royale on this machine!
Joking aside, the point of this quick performance story is to reiterate that Intel is at the beginning of a new journey. The goal is not just a relevant graphics product but leadership and innovation that will create new market segments and fundamentally change how consumers and businesses compute across different architectures. This Razer machine and the Ice Lake architecture is the first step in what will be an exciting odyssey for Intel.
And for those of you that still think that Intel can’t compete when it comes to efficient graphics performance in thin and light notebooks, it’s time to take a look at Ice Lake!
Legal Notice
Performance results are based on testing as of dates listed below and may not reflect all publicly available security updates. No product or component can be absolutely secure.
- Ice Lake vs. Whiskey Lake gaming graphics performance: Intel PreProduction 10th Gen Core i7 U 15W. Configuration: Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i7–1065G7, Intel Gen 11 Graphics, PreProduction driver, Memory: 8GB LPDDR4X-3733, Storage: Intel SSD Pro 7600P 256GB, OS: Windows 10 RS5 Build Version 475 vs. Intel PreProduction WHL U. Configuration: Processor: Intel Core i7-8565U 1.8GHz, up to 4.6GHz Turbo PL1=15W TDP, 4C/8T, Intel UHD Graphics 620, Graphics driver: 26.20.100.6709, Memory: 16GB DDR4–2400, Storage: Intel SSD 760P 512GB, OS: Windows 10 RS5 Build Version 475, Measured by Intel as of May 2019.
- Razer Blade Stealth 13 Test Configuration — CPU: Core i7–1065G7, Bios: 1.02, Storage: Samsung PM981 256GB, Driver: 25.20.100.7060, Memory: 16GB LPDDR4–3733, OS: Windows 10, Measured by Intel as of October 2019.
Rainbow Six: Siege — Version: Y4S3.3, Settings: 1920x1080 Medium, Testing method: minimum 5 minutes manual gameplay
F1 2019 — Version: 1.15, Settings: 1920x1080 DX11 Medium, Testing method: minimum 5 minutes manual gameplay
Fortnite — Version: 11.01, Settings: 1920x1080 Low, Testing method: minimum 5 minutes manual gameplay
For more complete information about performance and benchmark results, visit www.intel.com/benchmarks.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
