Intel may not be the most popular brand of choice when it comes to discrete GPUs, with just one Intel Arc generation to its name, but the development of its XeSS upscaling technology has seen solid growth since its launch. And now, the tech has hit a new milestone, as more than 200 Steam games support it.
Much like Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR, XeSS helps boost performance in games by running the game at a lower resolution, while upscaling it to maintain high graphical fidelity. Although Intel doesn’t have its own version of Frame Generation, XeSS can be used in tandem with FSR Frame Gen for the best performance boost possible on an Intel Arc graphics card.
Intel XeSS is now supported in over 200 games on Steam
According to SteamDB, an incredibly useful site if you want to keep track of all kinds of stats related to Steam, Intel XeSS is now supported in over 200 games; 203 to be exact at the time of writing. So far, Intel’s GPUs are best suited for 1080p gaming, though we found out that 1440p is achievable in our Arc A770 review.
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Top 10 rated games that support Intel XeSS
To give you a taster of games that support Team Blue’s upscaling tech, here are the top 10 games (by rating):
- Satisfactory
- Black Myth: Wukong
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Hi-Fi RUSH
- Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
- Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
- SILENT HILL 2
- The Talos Principle 2
- Judgment
- The Riftbreaker: Prologue
Unlike DLSS, which is exclusive to its RTX graphics cards, XeSS can be utilized by a wide range of hardware, including AMD and Nvidia GPUs. It generally makes the most sense to stick to the upscaler most relevant to your graphics card as performance should be better on average, however, mixing and matching is worth trying since the support is there.
While now boasting over 200 games, rival tech DLSS enjoys over 1,400 compatible titles on Steam, so Nvidia is still seen as the gold standard here. Even still, AMD also provides wide support across the three versions of FSR, often giving Intel GPU owners something to fall back on if XeSS is not directly supported (FSR will also work with Team Blue cards).
Battlemage is just around the corner
So far, Intel has only released its first-gen Arc graphics cards as part of the ‘Alchemist’ generation. These arrived back in 2022 and the launch of the second-gen ‘Battlemage’ is closer than ever. In fact, the Battlemage release date is currently expected in December 2024, so this 200-game milestone comes just ahead of its launch.
Since there are no expectations that Intel will target the high-end market, upscaling remains a key feature for its range of budget-friendly graphics cards. Official specifications are yet to be revealed, but a recent leak saw one model that best compares to the RTX 4060.