Intel has announced its 11th generation Tiger Lake laptop chip. This means higher frame rates than comparable AMD and Nvidia-powered laptops. Thanks to the power of the new Intel Xe GPUs built into Tiger Lake processors, serious 1080p gaming performance could be achieved in a serious thin machine.

Intel calls Tiger Lake "the world's best processor" and claims it will "outperform all imitators." Hmmm, spicy. Given that this 11th generation CPU is the first to feature the new 10nm SuperFin process technology, the new Willow Cove CPU core, and the new Intel Xe GPU silicon, it certainly has a chance.

In our gaming tests of AMD Ryzen 7 4800U devices, 11th generation Iris Xe-based laptops, and Nvidia MX350-based machines, the Tiger Lake machines were the clear leaders. The Intel machine in the center, running both Gears Tactics and GRID, achieved nearly 60 fps at 1080p, double the playable frame rate of Nvidia's discrete graphics cards and the GPUs built into the latest AMD APUs.

While achieving 1080p playable frame rates on an integrated graphics chip is impressive, such a bold performance claim comes with a few caveats: Gears Tactics itself is optimized exclusively for Intel Xe GPUs, and "GRID ' also seems to use a bit of Intel's special sauce to improve performance. In the past, Codemasters games such as "GRID 2" have been optimized for the new Intel GPU technology.

But some of that special sauce is still impressive: Gears Tactics uses Variable Rate Shading, a game-changing feature touted by both Nvidia and AMD to improve performance, but still the magic 60fps must be run on medium settings to achieve it.

While this gaming performance may not be fully representative of the experience gained by all games, we have seen Intel Xe machines with the likes of Destiny 2 and Battlefield V. Intel also has integrated graphics silicon to They have talked about achieving playable 1080p frame rates in Borderlands 3, Far Cry New Dawn, and Hitman 2.

The actual gaming performance of these new 11th generation machines will be fascinating. Because that's what we do.

The 11th generation cores run at up to 4.8 GHz, the Iris Xe GPUs reach 1.35 GHz and have already been benchmarked at up to 1.65 GHz. Combined with the new Intel logo, and the new Evo branding, Tiger Lake could be an ultrabook machine that gamers can actually use.

And more importantly, gamers will want to use it.

The thin and light form factor offered by Tiger Lake is a far cry from the bulky gaming laptops of the past; a full-blown gaming performance laptop like the Razer Blade Stealth or the Dell XPS 13 would definitely make me turn my head I would tilt my head back. I don't need 120 fps on the go, but a frame rate that doesn't make me want to close my eyes when I'm more than 5 minutes away from the socket would be great.

150 different 11th generation Tiger Lake designs have been announced by Razer, Asus, Dell, MSI, and others, with a reported nine different chips ranging from dual-core i3s to four-core, eight-thread i7 chips. And they all have somewhat confusing names. So don't worry. Trying to figure out what the CPU in that new laptop you've been eyeing is actually capable of is still tricky.

Just check out the table above. Maybe.

Basically, you want to look at either the Core i7 1185G7 or 1165G7. These are quad-core, 8-threaded, 11th generation chips with full fat, 96 EU Iris Xe GPUs running at 1.35 GHz. It also consumes up to 28W of power, which ultimately requires a trade-off between frame rate and battery life.