Iris Xe MAX Graphics vs ION 2

Place in the ranking	1305	624
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.13	14.05
Architecture	Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)	Generation 12.1 (2020−2021)
GPU code name	GT218	DG1
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	3 June 2008 (16 years ago)	31 October 2020 (4 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	16	768
Core clock speed	500 MHz	300 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1650 MHz
Number of transistors	260 million	no data
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	10 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	20 Watt	25 Watt
Texture fill rate	4.000	79.20
Floating-point processing power	0.03424 TFLOPS	2.534 TFLOPS
ROPs	4	24
TMUs	8	48

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface

PCIe 2.0 x16

PCIe 4.0 x4

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	System Shared	LPDDR4X
Maximum RAM amount	System Shared	4 GB
Memory bus width	System Shared	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	System Shared	2133 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	68.26 GB/s
Shared memory	+	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors

No outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.1 (10_1)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	4.1	6.4
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2
CUDA	1.2	-

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	1−2 −2600%	27 +2600%
1440p	1−2 −1600%	17 +1600%
4K	0−1	15

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

2−3

−800%

18−20
+800%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −800%	27−30 +800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −1050%	21−24 +1050%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −800%	18−20 +800%
Hitman 3	4−5 −500%	24 +500%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −663%	60−65 +663%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	4−5 −825%	35−40 +825%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −143%	65−70 +143%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −800%	27−30 +800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −1050%	21−24 +1050%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −800%	18−20 +800%
Hitman 3	4−5 −475%	23 +475%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −663%	60−65 +663%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	4−5 −725%	33 +725%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	9−10 −222%	27−30 +222%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −143%	65−70 +143%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −800%	27−30 +800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −1050%	21−24 +1050%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −800%	18−20 +800%
Hitman 3	4−5 −425%	21 +425%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −225%	26 +225%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	4−5 −625%	29 +625%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	9−10 −100%	18 +100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	27−30 −143%	65−70 +143%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	6−7
Hitman 3	6−7 −133%	14−16 +133%
Horizon Zero Dawn	2−3 −1050%	21−24 +1050%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−850%

18−20
+850%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	5−6

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−450%

10−12
+450%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	19 +0%	19 +0%
Battlefield 5	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Metro Exodus	57 +0%	57 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	33 +0%	33 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	6 +0%	6 +0%
Battlefield 5	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%
Metro Exodus	43 +0%	43 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +0%	27−30 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	75−80 +0%	75−80 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Far Cry 5	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Metro Exodus	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20 +0%	20 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−12 +0%	10−12 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Metro Exodus	10−11 +0%	10−11 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	11 +0%	11 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	11 +0%	11 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

This is how ION 2 and Iris Xe MAX Graphics compete in popular games:

Iris Xe MAX Graphics is 2600% faster in 1080p
Iris Xe MAX Graphics is 1600% faster in 1440p

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the Iris Xe MAX Graphics is 1050% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

Iris Xe MAX Graphics is ahead in 29 tests (41%)
there's a draw in 41 test (59%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.33	5.12
Recency	3 June 2008	31 October 2020
Chip lithography	40 nm	10 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	20 Watt	25 Watt

ION 2 has 25% lower power consumption.

Iris Xe MAX Graphics, on the other hand, has a 1451.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.

The Iris Xe MAX Graphics is our recommended choice as it beats the ION 2 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.