Overclocked to 3 GHz, the Intel Xe iGPU on Core Ultra 5 245K delivers a solid performance on Time Spy, a significant uplift compared to stock.
Despite lackluster gaming performance when paired with discrete GPUs, the Intel Core Ultra 200S is good when it comes to integrated graphics performance. It's the first time Intel equipped its mainstream desktop chips with powerful integrated GPU solutions to play most video games with playable frame rates.
Based on the Xe-LPG architecture, the Core Ultra 200S processors(non-F/KF) editions bring "Intel Graphics" onboard, featuring just 4 Xe Cores and clock speeds of up to 2.0 GHz. On the lower end, the Core Ultra 5 245K is the slowest CPU in the lineup as far as it goes for the first batch, but it's a solid mid-range offering that comes with 14 cores and an iGPU clocked at 1.9 GHz.
At stock speeds, the iGPU on the 245K delivers somewhere around 2100-2200 points in the 3DMark Time Spy Graphics test, but recently an overclocker, "Arabus" overclocked the iGPU frequency to a whopping 3.0 GHz. The results are uploaded to the Hwbot where we can see the rest of the configuration and the current performance in Time Spy.
The user was using the Arctic Freezer 4U-M air cooler, which has a single big block of aluminum heatsink and dual fans. It's not the best air cooler out there, but it isn't any lackluster either. Still, the user was able to reach 3.0 GHz using this cooling solution and achieved 3336 points in Time Spy Graphics, which is a staggering 54% increase in performance.
The overall score achieved was 3798 points, which is roughly 53-54% higher than the score achieved on the stock frequency. All of that at just 64° Celsius, which is nothing short of impressive. The outcome is comparable to the 3531 points on the desktop GTX 1650 graphics card, which is already a decent budget GPU. This means that the Core Ultra 5 245K can play games at 1080p high settings with satisfactory performance at such a high iGPU frequency. All of that, without having to deploy a premium AIO cooling solution.
It appears that reaching a higher frequency will be possible with a more powerful AIO, particularly when there isn't any fear of thermal throttling. Overclocking both the CPU and GPU should deliver even better scores.
Although the 245K was already overclocked to 5.4 GHz on the P-Cores, there is more potential left. It should also be pointed out that the user disabled E-cores, which means the CPU was strictly running on 6 performance cores, which is perhaps why the temperature didn't exceed 70s. However, even in the 70s, the CPU is still going to be fine for a longer session.