Intel's next generation Iris Xe graphics have appeared in the SiSoftware Sandra database, a popular system utility and benchmarking program. This leak not only provides some potential specifications, but is the first time we have seen "Iris" and "Xe" combined.

While this is not shocking, it is by no means a sure thing that Intel will continue to use the Iris brand. This is because Intel is about to make a change in the graphics arena. The company's upcoming Gen 12 Xe graphics will debut on the company's mobile Tiger Lake CPUs and will be based on the same basic architecture that drives the company's first and newest discrete GPUs, which will be available later this year.

According to a leak spotted by Twitter user APISAK (via Videocardz), the Intel Iris Xe graphics part will feature 96 execution units (EUs) and 768 GPU cores, clocked at 1.3 GHz.

To put these numbers in perspective, Intel's current full version of Gen 11 graphics has 64 EUs (up from 48 in Gen 9.5) and 512 GPU cores, clocked up to 1.1 GHz.

This benchmark is estimated to be a full version of Intel's Gen 12 graphics, known as Xe LP. This is what is found in Intel's mobile, ultra-mobile, and entry-level gaming solutions. Intel also has Xe HP (enthusiast, workstation) and Xe HPC (deep learning, cloud graphics, high-performance computing) graphics solutions.

As depicted in Sandra, Intel's Iris Xe graphics have the same number of GPU cores as Intel's discrete DG1 platform.

We were less than enthralled by what little we saw of the DG1 (Intel demonstrated its performance at CES). In its current form, however, the DG1 is a toned-down software development vehicle (SDV) intended to acquaint developers with its graphics architecture. Still, we are not so optimistic that whatever discrete GPUs ship this year will be gaming chips.