With the introduction of Kaby Lake in 2016, Intel decided to improve their on-board HD graphics and implemented the Iris Plus graphics chip. Their aim was to allow users to play at least the not-so-demanding titles without using an actual GPU. Now, Iris Plus graphics are present in a lot of entry-level laptops and notebooks so let’s take a look at what kind of performance you can expect from the latest Iris Plus chip found in the Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake processor.
Notebookcheck.net tested out the performance of the aforementioned processor with the Dell XPS 13 7390 2-in-1. We can see that while these chips are not capable of offering performance at par with a dedicated GPU, they can certainly offer a playable experience even in titles like Doom and Destiny 2. Both of these titles are fairly well optimized:
| Game | Resolution | Graphics preset | FPS (Average) |
| Doom | 720p | Lowest | 41 |
| 1080p | Lowest | 29 (Vulcan) | |
| Destiny 2 | 720p | Lowest | 29 |
There was no point of testing Destiny 2 at 1080p because it was pretty unplayable at that resolution.
The performance of Doom was also tested on the Acer Nitro 5 which has integrated RX Vega 10 graphics on 720p. It managed an average of only 26 FPS at lowest settings.
We can see that while this level of performance is nothing to write home about, Iris Plus graphics can offer a playable experience at 720p and in some cases 1080p, which is not bad at all. This shows how far Intel’s graphics chip has come. And of course, the word “playable” is quite subjective so while some people may not consider 30 FPS at 720p at the lowest settings to be playable, some others might look at it as an entryway into gaming, which is great!
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