Just a few years ago, the idea of playing a modern, high-performance game on an integrated graphics card was laughable. Recent chips have made gaming on iGPUs better than ever. However, a discrete GPU is still necessary for high-resolution and high-quality graphics. But, those days may be over sooner than we thought.
On Monday, the YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead posted a new video alleging that sources close to Nvidia say a rumored ARM chipset will feature powerful integrated graphics that could rival the performance of the mobile RTX 4070 GPU.
We've already considered that combining Nvidia's new chipsets with the company's discrete GPUs could take over the gaming market, but this latest report could shake things up even further.
What we know about Nvidia's ARM chipsets so far
Integrated graphics are better than ever
Integrated graphics used to slow to a slideshow when running even low-impact games, but that's changed quite a bit in the last few years.
Apple has made gaming on the M-series processors better than ever, with impressive leaps in gaming performance on the base M3 and M4 chipsets.
AMD's new Ryzen AI 300 series blew us away with its smooth gaming experience. Particularly at 1080p and Medium or Low graphics presets.
Intel's Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors offer solid integrated graphics performance on 1080p and Medium settings than we've seen from previous Intel iGPUs. However, the chip suffers when pushed into "High" graphics presets.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Sid Meier's Civililzation VI: Gathering Storm (Medium, 1080p) | Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Highest, 1080p) |
| MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) | 54 fps | 36 fps |
| Asus Zenbook S 16 (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) | 63 fps | 27 fps |
| Acer Swift 14 AI (Intel Core Ultra 258V) | 61 fps | 29 fps |
| Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100) | 21 fps | Not tested |
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite gaming performance was honestly the surprise here. Qualcomm had demoed the chips on custom-built hardware and the gaming performance was smooth and stutter-free. But when we spent some extra hands-on gaming time with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, we had a much worse gaming experience.
While you can game on a Snapdragon X chipset, it will take some tweaking.
However, the Snapdragon's gaming performance just helps prove the overall trend. Integrated graphics performance is getting better and better over time.
And Nvidia isn't the only one aiming for RTX 4070-like performance with an integrated graphics chip. Recent leaks suggest AMD's rumored Ryzen AI Max Pro chipset is also looking to take on the mobile RTX 4070 GPU.
Outlook
It feels a bit too soon to say much definitively about Nvidia's rumored ARM chipsets but based on what we do know and Nvidia's track record, it seems entirely possible these new processors will have impressive integrated graphics.
We will probably still see iGPU performance limited to 1080p resolution, but 1080p is still the default minimum resolution for gaming. While 4K gaming is better than it had been, higher resolutions come with a much higher demand for GPU power. So powerful integrated graphics may take over the 180p market, while discrete GPUs will remain for those who want to game at higher resolutions like 1440p, 2K, and especially 4K.
So in addition to Nvidia "advantage" style systems with Nvidia CPU and GPU combinations, these new chips could help revitalize the ultra-thin and light gaming laptop form factor with dependable, powerful integrated graphics.
But of course, we'll have to wait to see what Nvidia has in store closer to the launch. Though previews of the chips may come as early as January 2025 during CES 2025.
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