Intel tests Hitman 3 and Metro Exodus with Intel Arc

During the Intel Innovation 2021 event, the company will take the opportunity to talk about gaming and graphics performance, an area where the duo AMD and Nvidia will soon be expanded into a trio when Intel launches the graphics cards Arc. With the launch around the corner, Intel has also entered the game when it comes to upscaling technology, something they gave a first taste of this summer with a demonstration of what they call Xe Super Sampling (XESS) followed by a deeper insight at the end of August.

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► Intel Xe Super Sampling – scaling up with machine learning for Arc

As the technology combines hardware-accelerated artificial intelligence (AI) with temporal information and motion vectors, XESS is almost comparable to Nvidia’s DLSS rather than AMD’s FSR, as the latter does not use AI. Unlike DLSS, which is dependent on Nvidia’s Tensor cores, XESS is also compatible with hardware from other manufacturers. Now they also show what the technology looks like in games, where Hitman 3 and The Riftbreaker will be the first.

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The test system uses an Arc graphics card, however, it is not clear which exact model. Both games are compared scaled up from 1080p to 4K, something Intel previously claimed that XESS can do without visible loss of quality. They speak a little more cautiously this time and Roger Chandler instead formulates it as if it is possible to maintain performance.

In some of the comparisons, it is possible to discern slightly more detailed textures. However, any major difference in image quality is difficult to discern as the presentation is broadcast through Youtube and only in 1080p resolution, where it is also worth bearing in mind that YouTube’s compression affects what is shown in the image.

The bigger difference is in Intel’s second taste test, where they show ray tracing and Metro Exodus. It is a very short demonstration of only a few seconds with three scenes from the game ray tracing activated. Unlike Intel’s tests with XESS, this is easier to spot differences between ray tracing on and off.

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Interesting from both contexts ray tracing and machine learning is that Intel has invested significantly more than AMD and Nvidia in relation to traditional screening. How Intel’s own balance between these aspects will ultimately be felt at the beginning of next year, when the first Intel Arc graphics card sees the light of day.