Intel Arc G3 Extreme Performance Benchmarks Show A Clear Disruption In The Handled Gaming Segment, Offering Double The Battery At Same Performance

Intel shared more details and performance benchmarks of its game-changing Arc G3 Extreme chip for gaming handhelds.

Intel To Lead The Gaming Handheld Segment With Its Arc G3 Extreme Chip, Over 40% Faster on Average & Twice As Efficient As AMD's Z2 Extreme

Before Computex, Intel announced its Arc G3 series, which is based on the same architectures as the Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" chips but designed with gaming handhelds in mind. This means that Intel isn't just taking laptop SKUs and putting them on handhelds; instead, the Arc G3 is meticulously designed for low-power and high-performance handhelds.

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Arc G3 Partner Devices

At the Intel Handheld Suite in Taipei, we had a hands-on with three Arc G3 gaming handhelds, all based on the top G3 Extreme SoC. These include the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, the OneXPlayer 3, & the Acer Predator Atlas 8. There will be many more handhelds at launch with cost-effective G3 chips, so look forward to the full lineup in the coming months.

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There's a lot to talk about, so we will get straight to the benchmarks first. Intel's last gaming handheld SoC was the Core Ultra Series 2 "Lunar Lake" family. For this, Intel made some power tuning optimizations that made the chip viable for gaming handhelds, but it wasn't necessarily a pure handheld chip. With the Arc G3 series, that changes.

In the first comparison, we have the Arc G3 Extreme (35W) compared against the Core Ultra 7 258V (30W), and the performance difference is massive. You are looking at a 44% average gain and over 50% gains in several titles. Death Stranding 2 saw an over 2x gain in performance, but that's mostly due to driver-level optimizations for the newer Xe3 architecture. The Xe2 iGPUs are still very capable, but the Xe3 puts them in the dust.

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Generational Leap (Intel Arc G3 Extreme vs Intel Core Ultra 7 258V)

Game Title	Core Ultra 7 258V	Arc G3 Extreme	% Improvement
Hades II	100	118	+18%
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered	100	134	+34%
Red Dead Redemption 2	100	142	+42%
Cyberpunk 2077	100	227	+127%
Battlefield V	100	156	+56%
Resident Evil Requiem	100	144	+44%
Diablo IV	100	138	+38%
Hogwarts Legacy	100	121	+21%
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach	100	130	+30%

Even when both chips are set to a 17W sustained power limit, the Arc G3 Extreme ends up 24% faster on average. That's quite impressive.

Next up, Intel compares the Arc G3 Extreme against AMD's fastest handheld chip, the Z2 Extreme. With both chips running at 35W, the G3 Extreme edges out the Z2 Extreme by an average 42% faster gaming performance across a wide set of titles. More than a quarter of the games tested were running 50% faster on the G3 Extreme.

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High Power Gaming (35W sustained)

Game Title	Arc G3 Extreme	Z2 Extreme	% Improvement
Crimson Desert	84	59	+42%
Assassin’s Creed Shadows	87	61	+43%
Cyberpunk 2077	92	65	+42%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II	95	67	+42%
Diablo IV	89	63	+41%
Rocket League	99	70	+41%
Hollow Knight: Silksong	97	69	+41%

When tuned to a lower power limit of 17W, the Arc G3 Extreme delivers 24% faster performance on average than the Z2 Extreme. The platforms used for these tests were the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ (Arc G3 Extreme) and the ASUS ROG XBOX Ally X (Ryzen Z2 Extreme).

At even lower power limits of 12W, the Extreme Intel Arc G3 delivers 37% faster performance on average versus the Extreme Ryzen Z2. Intel can maintain over 30 FPS across the various titles, whereas AMD's Z2 Extreme stumbles below 30 FPS.

Low Power Playability (12W sustained)

Game Title	Arc G3 Extreme	Z2 Extreme	% Improvement
Battlefield 6	72	52	+38%
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered	68	49	+39%
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33	61	44	+39%
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach	59	43	+37%
Dying Light: The Beast	64	46	+39%
Returnal	58	42	+38%
Red Dead Redemption 2	55	40	+38%
Directive 8020	66	48	+38%
The Last of Us Part II	63	46	+37%
Batman: Legacy of The Dark Knight	69	50	+38%
Forza Horizon 6	71	52	+37%
Marvel Rivals	74	54	+37%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III	77	56	+38%
Black Myth: Wukong	62	45	+38%
Cyberpunk 2077	65	47	+38%
Hogwarts Legacy	67	49	+37%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70	51	+37%
Naraka: Bladepoint	73	53	+38%
F1 25	69	50	+38%
GTA V Enhanced	99	72	+38%

The other advantage that Intel has over the Z2 Extreme is its much superior upscaling and frame-gen technologies. We all know how AMD's FSR 4 and FSR 4.1 upscalers aren't currently available on RDNA 3.5-based iGPUs. Meanwhile, Intel has its latest XeSS 3 models supported by its iGPU, and even multi-frame-gen support is available up to 4x modes.

Intel's XeSS on Arc G3 Extreme drives better performance, delivering smoother and good frame-pacing with frame-gen enabled, and then you add multi-frame-gen, which adds 2x FPS boost for smoother performance, giving a superb gaming experience on handheld platforms.

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Multi-Frame Generation Leadership (Cyberpunk 2077, 1080p High)

Technology	AMD Z2 Extreme (FSR)	Intel Arc G3 Extreme (XeSS)	% Improvement
Super Resolution	52	73	+40%
Frame Gen	89	121	+36%
Multi-Frame Gen	N/A	199	—

And last in the benchmarks is Intel showcasing its performance efficiency with a 17W Arc G3 set up against a 35W AMD Z2 Extreme. The Arc G3 offers similar performance at half the power, leading to higher battery life. This means that users will get to play for longer periods of time on their devices, maintaining a smooth visual experience.

Performance Efficiency Standard (17W vs 35W)

Game Title	Arc G3 Extreme (17W)	Z2 Extreme (35W)	% Improvement
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II	81	81	0%
Crimson Desert	83	82	+1%
Battlefield	85	84	+1%
Hollow Knight: Silksong	87	86	+1%
War Thunder	89	88	+1%
Forza Horizon 6	91	90	+1%
Assassin’s Creed Shadows	93	92	+1%
The Last of Us Part II	95	94	+1%
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II	97	96	+1%
F1 25	99	98	+1%
PRAGMATA	101	100	+1%
GTA VI Enhanced	103	102	+1%
Naraka: Bladepoint	105	104	+1%
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33	107	106	+1%
Black Myth: Wukong	109	108	+1%
Windrose	111	110	+1%
ARC Raiders	113	112	+1%
Roblox	115	114	+1%
Warframe	117	116	+1%
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach	119	118	+1%
Cyberpunk 2077	121	120	+1%
Hogwarts Legacy	123	122	+1%
Resident Evil Requiem	125	124	+1%
Diablo IV	127	126	+1%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	129	128	+1%
Returnal	131	130	+1%
Red Dead Redemption 2	133	132	+1%
Dying Light: The Beast	134	133	+1%
LEGO Batman	132	131	+1%
Fortnite	130	129	+1%

Arc G3 & Its Various Optimizations

Intel also disclosed the optimizations and changes it has made to make Arc G3 the perfect chip for the handheld segment. These include optimized IO, new power management strategies, configurable TDPs, & deeper co-system engineering.

Intelligent Bias Control v3.5

Another crucial thing to note is that Intel is making use of just two P-Cores instead of four. The display engines are down from three to two, and the Thunderbolt is down from four to two. The chip has been cut this way to fit in the TDP window that is viable for making an efficient handheld SoC. And the 12Xe3 cores are still there because handhelds made for gaming are largely GPU-centric devices.

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There's also Intelligent Bias Control, which prioritizes GPU frequency while also having the ability to stabilize the power shifting between the CPU and the GPU. This solution was introduced on Lunar Lake since Intel discovered that both the CPU and the GPU were fighting for power. The CPU worked fast & went to sleep, whereas the GPU was doing processing work for longer durations, leaving the CPU with little available power headroom to work with. So here, the E-Cores are prioritized first versus the P-Cores because the latter consume more power.

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In Intelligent Bias Control v3.5, which will be introduced with the Arc G3 series, a new feature called P-Core parking will be introduced, which will turn off the P-Cores entirely when running at 12W or lower. And since E-Cores consume lower power, there's more power headroom available to the GPU. With IBC On, Arc G3 will see up to 31% performance improvement at 12W.

Endurance Gaming Mode

The last update in terms of handheld optimizations is going to be Endurance Gaming, which will let users select a custom FPS limit (30, 40, 60). The tech will do the frame pacing at hardware and use the SoC power controls to make everything run slower, leading to longer battery.

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This is essential since not everyone wants their games running at over 100 or 200 FPS. You can get a smoother and more playable experience at 60 FPS, too, and with Endurance Gaming enabled, you can see a massive increase in playtime. In Intel's own tests, the company shows almost 6 hours of game time in Forza Horizon 6 versus around 3 hours with the mode disabled.

Precompiled Shader Distribution

Intel already has Precompiled Shaders support out in its latest Arc Game-On drivers, and these will also be coming to the Arc G-Series SoCs. The driver will automatically download the precompiled shaders locally, leading to faster load times in many games. Users will be able to see a 3x boost in load times on average.

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Arc Continues To Be The Spotlight of Intel's Client Segment With Great Hardware & Software Updates

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And the blue team is also working with the developer community around its Arc platform, with 3000+ NDA early access game builds received and evaluated alongside 1000+ titles that are already out that Intel has engaged with.

Currently, 400+ games support XeSS Super Resolution, and Intel has been supporting developers by seeding them with Arc GPUs (500+ shipped so far). Since the first Arc launch, Intel has supported 200+ games with Day-0 driver support, and there are also 100+ games with XeSS Multi-Frame Generation out now.

All of this goes to show the hard work put in by Intel around its Arc GPU platform. Intel had a rough start, but since Xe2, the company has been rolling out some great hardware and software support, and it's the best it's ever been with Xe3. Intel has committed to a long Xe roadmap ahead, and with all the software work that is going on, Intel's Arc family is in safe hands, and we can't wait to see the Arc G3 series in action later this year.

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