Intel Graphics 48EU (Meteor Lake): Performance of the 3 Xe-Core Configuration

Intel Graphics 48EU (Meteor Lake) is built on the Xe-LPG architecture and features 3 Xe cores with 48 vector units. In the Core Ultra 5 115U, the GPU reaches a clock speed of 1.8 GHz. In testing, the 48EU performs roughly on par with the Iris Xe 96EU. Lightweight games remain playable at 1080p, but frame rates are noticeably lower in modern demanding titles.

Three Xe Cores in the Entry-Level Meteor Lake Configuration

A single Xe-LPG core contains 16 vector units, so three Xe cores provide 48 units in total. The theoretical FP32 performance reaches 1.3824 TFLOPS at the maximum clock speed of 1.8 GHz.

Higher-end Meteor Lake configurations feature more Xe cores. The U series uses variants with 4 Xe cores, while the H series has as many as 7-8. The performance of the integrated GPU cannot be determined from the Meteor Lake name alone without specifying its configuration.

Performance in Specific Laptops

Intel Graphics 48EU scores 1565 points, virtually matching the Iris Xe 96EU. The Iris Xe 80EU trails by approximately 22%, while the Radeon 740M is about 9% faster and the Radeon 760M about 28% faster.

Gaming Performance

In Dota 2, performance reaches 54.5 FPS at 1080p on high settings, while Strange Brigade delivers 34.8 FPS at medium settings. In GTA V, performance drops to 19.9 FPS on high settings, while Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 remain below 20 FPS even on low settings at Full HD.

To increase FPS in demanding games, you will have to lower the resolution and settings.

Video and Multimedia

Meteor Lake supports hardware decoding and encoding for AV1, HEVC, and H.264, as well as Intel Quick Sync Video. Encoding and decoding are handled by a separate media block, so the number of Xe cores does not directly determine the speed of these operations.

Conclusion

In Time Spy Graphics, Intel Graphics 48EU scores around 1560 points-virtually the same as the Iris Xe 96EU, but lower than the Radeon 740M and Radeon 760M.

The performance is sufficient for 1080p in Dota 2, while Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 drop below 20 FPS even on low settings.