By On Wednesday, Intel said that it is integrating its XeSS 2 technology into even more games, including high-end titles like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and Diablo IV, putting them in the “definitely playable” category by boosting framerates by an astounding four times. During the announcement, Intel also disclosed that more than 200 PC games currently support XeSS in some way.
At the end of 2024, XeSS 2 was introduced alongside the $250 Intel Arc B580 (“Battlemage”) architecture, a “budget” graphics card that undoubtedly lessened some of the sticker shock associated with AMD and, particularly, Nvidia cards. It does not necessarily require an Intel GPU and integrates frame generation, latency reduction, and upscaling.
XeSS’s ability to apply extra frames where they are most needed—at the low end—is its most crucial feature. On paper, raising a game’s frame rate from 260 to 360 frames per second seems fantastic, but XeSS excels when it comes to raising a game’s frame rate from less than 60 frames per second, for instance, to 90 frames per second and higher. That transforms what may otherwise be a difficult, annoying encounter into one that is genuinely enjoyable.
After deciding to release the XeSS 2 SDK, Intel now claims that XeSS 2 has been included in 10 more titles, for a total of 19. In titles like Marvel Rivals, where XeSS boosts frame rates from 43 fps (native) to 138 fps using XeSS 2, Intel is today releasing estimated gameplay performance. That is a huge bump! The same is true for Rise of the Ronin: increasing frame rates from 37 to 100 frames per second results in a fun, playable game.
