Integrated Graphics You Can Actually Game On? Core Ultra 250K Plus Beats Steam Deck and Runs CS2 at 1080p

Usually, integrated graphics on desktop processors are only there to put an image on the screen or run an office suite. But with the new Intel Core Ultra 250K Plus chip, the situation is surprisingly different. An overclocker going by the handle Lucky_n00b tested the capabilities of this processor's integrated graphics and found that the quad-core Xe graphics based on the Xe+ (Alchemist) architecture deliver about 1.8 TFLOPs of performance. That's enough to beat the portable Steam Deck console with its RDNA 2 graphics.

In real games, the numbers look like this: Counter-Strike 2 averages 91 FPS at 1080p on low settings with FSR set to Balanced, while Genshin Impact holds a steady 60 FPS under the same settings. Heavier titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and Shadow of the Tomb Raider run around 30 FPS — not ideal, but for desktop processor integrated graphics, that's more than respectable.

Of course, this chip is still far from discrete GPUs, and the architecture isn't the newest: mobile solutions like Lunar Lake and Panther Lake use the more recent Xe2 and Xe3. Still, the very fact that integrated graphics can handle modern games at Full HD without a discrete card is pretty unusual. Another nice touch is AV1 codec support, which lets you record or stream 4K video at 60 frames per second without loading down your main graphics card. For anyone capturing gameplay or streaming, that could be a sweet bonus.

Of course, this isn't a reason to ditch discrete graphics if you're building a gaming PC, but for a processor positioned as a regular desktop chip, the integrated graphics delivered a surprisingly peppy result. Especially considering that many still think of Intel HD Graphics as synonymous with weak performance.

What's your take on integrated graphics in desktop processors? Do you see practical value in them, or do you still throw in a discrete GPU even for office tasks? Share your thoughts in the comments.