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• Intel has revealed XeSS 2 which follows in the footsteps of DLSS
• It’s split into XeSS Frame Generation and XeSS Super Resolution
• There’s also Xe Low Latency to combat input lag, much like Nvidia Reflex

Intel has just unveiled new Battlemage desktop GPUs, and alongside those graphics cards comes a fresh version of XeSS, its upscaling tech to rival Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR.

Yes, XeSS 2 is here, and Intel is making some big changes with the technology in this sequel. In fact, XeSS 2 is being split into two core components: XeSS Frame Generation and XeSS Super Resolution.

In other words, this is going the same route as Nvidia, when with DLSS 3, Team Green brought in frame generation – which means artificially inserting extra frames into the game, to make it smoother. It’s a separate technology to the actual upscaling component of DLSS 3, and so this is what Intel has done – split XeSS into Super Resolution (upscaling) and Frame Generation (extra frames generated to bolster the frame rate).

On top of that, Intel is introducing Xe Low Latency, which is essentially equivalent to Nvidia Reflex – a complementary tech to reduce input lag which helps to smooth over the lag wrinkles that are a side effect of frame generation.

In terms of support, only Intel’s Alchemist and Battlemage GPUs will get XeSS 2 – not any third-party GPUs – and on the games side, developers will need to code in support for all these new technologies (including frame generation, and low latency). However, we’ve also seen mentions of manually enabling low latency (at the driver level), so we’ll have to see how that shakes out.

On top of this, Intel has deployed a new control panel for its Arc GPUs which will simply be called ‘Intel Graphics Software’ (in much the same vein as Team Green’s new and renamed Nvidia App).

This is billed as an ‘all-in-one hub’ for all your Arc GPU needs, from updating drivers to game optimization, enabling Intel’s tech such as low latency mode, changing display options, monitoring performance (frame rates and GPU status), along with controls for overclocking.

Hat tip to VideoCardz for picking up on both of these developments.

Analysis: Keeping pace with upscaling – the future of gaming

There are some major changes here, as we noted at the outset, and aside from all the new tech – implemented very much along the lines of DLSS – there’s also that switch in support for GPUs. Previously XeSS allowed AMD and Nvidia GPUs (or some of them) to use and benefit from the tech, but that’s no longer the case due to frame generation requiring Intel’s own hardware (XMX AI Engines).

Team Blue might work around that in the future, but for now, XeSS 2 will be for Intel Arc graphics cards only.

It’s not really surprising to see Intel moving in the same direction as Nvidia – after all, DLSS is very much regarded as the killer solution for boosting frame rates. What’s good to see with Team Blue is that XeSS 2 also allows for frame generation with older Alchemist graphics cards, whereas with DLSS 3, only RTX 4000 – the very newest Nvidia GPUs – get the frame generation component. (RTX 3000 graphics cards support everything else in DLSS 3, to be fair, including ray reconstruction – but not frame generation).

If Intel is to stay competitive in the GPU space, it’s certainly important that it keeps XeSS up to speed, as upscaling is regarded as a core piece of the future of gaming. More and more games are relying on such technology to achieve smooth frame rates, particularly at the likes of 4K resolution (or its upscaled equivalent, we should say).

We’re seeing upscaling become a key part of consoles – witness the PlayStation Pro 5 with PSSR – and on PCs, what’ll make it even more prevalent is Microsoft’s move with DirectSR, an effort to make it much easier for game developers to use XeSS, DLSS and FSR in their games.

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• Microsoft has stated that requirement for TPM 2.0 is ‘non-negotiable’
• This clarification came as part of a blog post for businesses
• It looks like there’s no chance of consumers being let off the hook either

Those with Windows 10 PCs who are blocked from upgrading to Windows 11 due to a lack of TPM 2.0 may have been hoping Microsoft might relent on that requirement – but the software giant has clarified that this won’t happen.

Neowin noticed that in a post addressing IT admins, Microsoft explained that TPM 2.0 is a ‘non-negotiable’ element for the future of Windows computers running Windows 1

To rewind briefly, TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, and this hardware security measure can be present as a standalone module in your PC, or more commonly, it’s simply enabled in your motherboard firmware (meaning diving into the BIOS, and we explain what to do here).

The problem arises when you have an older chipset and there’s no TPM 2.0 capability (and indeed Windows 11 requirements rule out older CPUs too). That leaves you with a potentially tricky and expensive upgrade to perform in order to get Windows 11.

Microsoft is firm on the need for TPM 2.0 (and complementary security features like secure boot) because it implements a tighter level of security for Windows 11 PCs, something the company feels is necessary.

As the blog post tells us: “From supporting more intricate encryption algorithms to adding cryptographic functionality, TPM 2.0 is essential to counteracting present-day cyber risks.”

Microsoft adds: “By instituting TPM 2.0 as a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows, we elevate the security benchmark.”

Analysis: No hope of Microsoft budging an inch

Of course, this is all about businesses, which are obviously in much greater need of defenses against the ‘present-day cyber risks’ flying around than your average consumer sat at home with their PC.

However, the use of language like ‘non-negotiable standard’ makes it seem extremely unlikely that any exceptions are going to be made for consumers (especially given other moves Microsoft is busy making, which we’ll come back to shortly). Even though those consumers are likely much less bothered about super-tight security than business organizations are.

You might be wondering: why would Microsoft make any exceptions, anyway, all this time after the launch of Windows 11? Well, with Windows 10 End of Life arriving next year, in October 2025, quite a lot of negative noise has (understandably) been made about hundreds of millions of PCs that don’t qualify for Windows 11’s requirements potentially ending up in landfill.

So, given that, perhaps there were still embers of hope that Microsoft could change its mind about Windows 11’s spec requirements in some way – but it’s looking very much like the company won’t budge. Also backing that up is the fact that Microsoft has, for the first time ever, given consumers an option to pay for extended support (security updates) for Windows 10 for an extra year, through to October 2026.

That appears to be Microsoft’s sole compromise in terms of consumers with Windows 10 PCs, while it busily badgers them about buying a new Windows 11 computer (preferably a Copilot+ PC, of course).

We should note that there are unofficial workarounds to get Windows 11 on a PC that doesn’t have TPM 2.0 (or falls short of other requirements), but they aren’t recommended – and Microsoft very much cautions against this route.

In fact, Microsoft just added an ugly watermark on the desktop (yes, the same as when running an unactivated copy of Windows) and an annoying pop-up for those using Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, having leveraged one of those aforementioned fudges to get the OS installed. If you needed more evidence of Microsoft’s apparently concrete stance on Windows 11’s upgrade requirements, well, there it is.

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