Intel's second-gen XeSS 2, with Frame Generation, matches Nvidia's DLSS in terms of features and may have an edge over AMD's FSR

Intel has released its second-gen gaming graphics cards, codenamed Battlemage. The Arc B580 & B570 graphics card are the first to be released. We're a bit disappointed that they are only targeting Nvidia's lower-end RTX 4060 graphics cards for now. Battlemage has the edge over AMD when it comes down to features and technology. This includes scaling.

Intel has also released a new version XeSS 2 of its upscaling technology to coincide with the launch of Battlemage. The biggest news is that it now has frame generation, which makes it almost feature-competitive to Nvidia's DLSS.

Intel is arguably the winner over AMD. Intel's GPUs have XMX Cores, which are AI Accelerators similar to Nvidia Tensor Cores. Intel can now match Nvidia's AI-accelerated scaling, while AMD's scalers have to be hand-coded. AMD GPUs currently do not have cores that are equivalent to Intel XMX and Nvidia Tensor.

Intel's Frame Generation algorithm appears to be similar to Nvidia’s DLSS. It uses motion vectors, depth information and data from previous frames to feed into optical flow algorithms and motion vector reprojection. These algorithms are blended to create interim frames which can be inserted in between fully rendered frames of the 3D pipeline.

Intel's claims about the total performance increase are astounding. In its highest performance mode, running F124 at 1440p with XESS 2, the upscaling feature combined with Frame Generation boosts performance from a barely staggering 48 fps to a slightly astounding 186 fps. This is a 3.9x increase. Even with the highest visual quality enabled, performance increases by 2.8x up to 136 frames per second.

Intel introduces XeLL to complement XeSS's Super Resolution scaling, and frame generation features (also known as XeSS SR and XeSS FG). The "LL" here stands for low-latency.

Intel says that the XeLL feature can be used to offset the latency when enabling Frame Generation technology.

The latency of the new B580 GPU will be the same whether you use Super Resolution, Frame Generation, or the Low Latency Mode. The idea is to get the best of both worlds: lower latency from upscaling and buttery smooth animations enabled by frame generation.

It's a feature set that rivals Nvidia's on paper, and is superior to AMD's non-AI gaming graphics cards. We'll have to see how XeSS 2 performs in the real world and how it compares with AMD FSR and Nvidia DLSS.