Chrome OS is officially 10 years old and that’s how far we’ve come. A few years ago, the only important decisions a user needed to make when purchasing a Chromebook were the format, the quality of the screen and the internal components. Nowadays, there is much more to consider as Chromebooks stand out. Users can choose from a multitude of options and obtain a device that is selected for their exact needs. You can get a Chromebook with a fingerprint sensor or one that has a removable keyboard. You can buy a device with a refillable pen in the garage or buy the pen of your choice thanks to the emerging USI platform. Buyers can choose between devices with ARM technology, AMD Ryzen or the latest Core CPUs from Intel. Undoubtedly, Chrome OS options have expanded exponentially in recent years.
Of all the new and future options available for Chrome OS, few are as enthusiastic as the next generation of Chromebooks with Intel’s Tiger Lake CPUs. The CPU itself should be an improvement over current and capable Comet Lake processors, which have proven to be quite powerful on devices like the Acer Spin 713, Samsung Galaxy Chromebook and HP Chromebook C1030. Where 11th generation Tiger Lake chips should shine is in the GPU department. The first benchmarks for Intel’s new integrated Xe graphics show a GPU that could very well go toe-to-toe with some dedicated mid-range graphics processing units. This is great news for Chrome OS. For a long time, Chromebooks relied only on the standard UHD graphics housed on Intel CPUs and those integrated graphics are, well, meh. Now that Chrome OS has integrated Linux applications and Crostini can access the computer’s GPU, Intel’s Xe graphics have become a very important player in the Chrome OS ecosystem. One of our patrons recently shared a YouTube video of a Core i7 Tiger Lake CPU being put to the test on a Windows laptop and I was excited to see how well this integrated GPU really worked. Check out.
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So, as you can see, the new Xe iGPU is not sloppy. No, it’s not a stupid GPU and it will choke on some of its heaviest games, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. Power users who want to take full advantage of Linux on Chrome OS are looking for more power and these XeiGPUs could very well offer that power and possibly open the door to the use of powerful applications like the Davinci Resolve video editor or hungry code compilation software for power. What’s more, the Borealis project is expected to launch sometime in 2021. This will bring the full Steam gaming platform to Chrome OS and many of these games will need more GPU power than what is offered in today’s Intel UHD graphics.
I say all this because I noticed something intriguing when I was browsing the ASUS website this morning. Currently, ASUS is the only OEM that has officially announced a Tiger Lake Chromebook. The ASUS Chromebook CX9 is expected to be one of the first flagships of Tiger Lake to hit the market, scheduled to launch in the second quarter. You can bet that other PC makers won’t be far behind. Anyway, when I looked at this new Chromebook, I noticed something on the spec sheet. The CX9 will offer an 11th Generation Core i3 or Core i5 CPU.
- Intel® Core ™ i3-1115G4 3.0 GHz processor (6M Cache, up to 4.1 GHz, 2 cores)
- Intel® Core ™ i5-1135G7 2.4 GHz processor (8M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz, 4 cores)
I assumed that the graphics integrated on these two chips would be the same or similar. I was wrong. In the graphics sections, ASUS lists the Irix Xe graphics, but also lists the UHD graphics. At that point, I started to get very confused. So, I started doing a little research and that’s what I found out. Tiger Lake Core i3 chipsets have Xe graphics, but are labeled Iris Xe G4, while Core i7 and higher are Iris Xe G7. Intel decided to continue labeling the smaller GPU as a UHD video card and, as I discovered, there is good reason. The GPU on all Core i3 processors boasts significantly less power than the Iris Xe Graphics G7 found on the Core i5 chip. I dug up some benchmarks from laptomedia.com and you can see below that there is a big difference in the 3DMark benchmarks between the two iGPUs. According to the website, real-world performance gains for the G7 GPU range from 10% to 40%. It is a serious leap.
Why does it matter
For the average Chromebook user, these earnings are unlikely to make a big difference if you continue to use the device as you do now. If the current generation of Comet Lake chips offers everything you need in the power department, the Tiger Lake Core i3 will surely do what you need. If you’re like me and want to harness the power of Intel’s Xe graphics for Linux applications and games, you probably need to look at the Core i5 model. You will not only get improvements in GPU performance, but Core i5 is also a quad-core chip, while Core i3 houses only two cores. The Core i5 CPU alone, as we saw with Comet Lake, should easily get Core i3 out of the water. The addition of the more powerful GPU will make the more robust model a must-have for those who want to push Chrome OS to its limit.
To summarize, this really serves as a public service announcement. Although I am sure that many already knew the differences between the two Intel GPUs, I did not know and would be doing a terrible service to our readers if I did not warn them about the differences. It would be very easy to buy one of these new Core i3 Chromebooks thinking that you are getting the best integrated graphics that Intel has to offer only to discover that is not the case. When these devices finally hit the shelves, we’ll take a deep dive to test the real-world gap between the two GPUs to help you make the best purchase decision based on your personal needs. That is all.
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