I did some fast and soiled testing of the Intel Arc B390 iGPU in Intel's new top-end Core Extremely chip and I'm fairly impressed
It’s going to be a short time but earlier than we get the Intel Core Extremely Sequence 3 cell chips on our take a look at bench. Nonetheless, as I am on the bottom at CES 2026, Intel gave me an opportunity earlier right this moment to place the Arc B390 iGPU by its paces in a short benchmarking session. I’ve to say, its efficiency was fairly spectacular—for an built-in graphics answer, on the very least.
Resulting from my packed CES schedule (my fault totally), I had lower than an hour to shortly run some benchmarks and futz round within the odd sport. Nonetheless, I am sufficient of an previous hand to know precisely what sport I used to be benching first—Cyberpunk 2077, after all.
No, that is an iGPU, and expectations needs to be tempered—Intel says the Arc B390 is round 10% quicker on common than an Nvidia RTX 4050, and that is not precisely a lightning-fast graphics card.
A superbly playable common of 53 fps. Now, I am absolutely conscious that this determine is unlikely to set anybody’s world on fireplace. That being stated, for an iGPU with no upscaling or body era assist, it is nonetheless downright spectacular. The machine I used to be testing it on felt like about as default a pocket book as you could possibly attainable purchase, so it was barely surreal to see it ship such a outcome with little or no fanfare.
In actuality, anybody gaming on a GPU-less transportable machine will wish to make use of upscaling, so I ran the bench once more with XeSS set to High quality, leading to a 74 fps common outcome. I might say that was downright easy, and I might fortunately play Cyberpunk 2077 as soon as extra at this type of picture high quality and body price with out grievance.
If I used to be actually pushed, although, I might fairly like some ray tracing. With a gulp, I modified the preset to Ray Tracing: Extremely (hey, why not), enabled body era, set XeSS to Auto, consulted with the gods, and set the benchmark off as soon as extra.
70.31 fps. Now, provided that 2x body era is concerned, latency would nearly definitely rear its ugly head fairly shortly whereas gaming at these type of settings, given the lowness of the bottom body price—and because the sport was a clean slate with no save file, I did not have the time to leap in and run by the prologue to show it. Nonetheless, the truth that an iGPU can spit out these type of frames in any respect at these settings (with heavy help, granted), is pretty spectacular.
Giddy with pleasure, I observed that Borderlands 4 was put in on my take a look at machine. This sport is, regardless of a number of efficiency patches, notoriously demanding. Whereas there isn’t any in-game benchmark to talk of, I believed I might shortly run by the opening part to see what kind of frames I may get.
It needs to be no shock that the Arc iGPU struggled. BL4 offers the RTX 5090 a tough time, in any case, and at 1200p Excessive settings with XeSS set to High quality, I bounced across the 40-45 fps mark. Whereas body era is an choice within the settings, I could not get it to reliably work on the Intel chip—though given FG labored effectively in my different testing, I will blame the Rippers for that one.
To complete off, I believed I might escape Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a sport that is getting on in years however remains to be utilized by many shops as a dependable take a look at bench. It is nonetheless a really pretty-looking factor in movement, and the benchmark is pretty complete, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the most effective,
At 1200p Excessive settings with no upscaling enabled, I noticed highs within the 100s, 1% lows within the mid 30s, and a median of 75 fps. Once more, that is an iGPU, and whereas SOTTR is not precisely leading edge anymore, it could possibly nonetheless push some fashionable graphics playing cards with the settings turned up. I might say that is an excellent outcome for the Arc, and a terrific showcase of the type of picture high quality (and smoothness) that may now be eeked out of a discrete GPU-less machine.
So, what can we glean from my fast and soiled testing? Nicely, I do not wish to draw conclusions till we get the Panther Lake chips below PC Gamer lab situations. However I’ve to say, as iGPUs go, it is a very promising begin. The 12 Xe-cored chip appears to punch fairly darn onerous for its measurement, and I might be very, very curious to see what it may do in a gaming handheld.
I do surprise if it is one thing of a Rubicon-crossing second for slender and light-weight client laptops, too. The type of individuals shopping for discrete GPU-less machines in all probability will not have gaming as a high precedence—however with this type of efficiency obtainable, it’d convey a number of new converts to the trigger.
We’ll should see. Nonetheless, it is encouraging stuff, and I can not wait to clamp one among these chips down and put it by its correct paces once I get dwelling. What time’s my flight once more? I’ve obtained testing to do!